The following enunciation jumped out at me, in my study of this chapter, “But all speech is, indeed, significant, not as an instrument (organon), but as we have said, according to human compact.” My immediate pondering was, “Why would speech, assuming it comes from the human voice, not be considered an instrument? Is it not the very instrument, through which communication can be intelligible? The voice produces sounds, which implies it causes some kind of speech.”
I contemplated the sentence, read it many times, tried to think outside the box that was being given, and eventually decided to test my reasoning with the tutor. I asked, “Is it the because the sounds do not mean anything without human compact? If so, then that would imply that no speech, can be known, prior to human compact taking place.” The tutor affirmed my thoughts on that enunciation made by Aristotle. I then abstracted that this could imply, further proof, that the “Tower of Babel” story from Genesis actually happened, and is not metaphorical, or allegorical. It seems that it would be reasonable, with this premise, to believe that all men at one point in time spoke the same language; however, God confused their prideful speech, to which then, if they wanted to survive, that event would have necessitated for them to come together, and agree on words by compact, in order to be able to communicate.
The second thing I could not understand immediately, was when he asserts, “Thus, for instance, a prayer, is, indeed, speech, but is neither true nor false.” I wondered why this would be. So again, I attempted an abstraction and reasoned with the tutor, “Perhaps, this is because in Aristotle’s time, prayer was subjective, and not objective due to the lack of divine revelation. It seems that prayer, at that time outside of Israel, would have been a supplication addressed to a reality that was not known, and outside of what could be reasoned with.” The tutor confirmed my answer as being reasonable, and coherent according to the source. This really makes me wonder at how it must have felt, to not know, what God has revealed to us modern men by grace; and, being blessed the credibility of truth concerning the Catholic Church, the sacraments, adoption as sons of God through baptism in Jesus Christ, etc. This makes me respect pre-Christian wise men all the more, now that I am immersed in their writings. What they did, to live virtuously, and reason at this level rationally, without the help of divine revelation, is extraordinary to think about.
EAR