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This article answers two questions that lead to a profound contemplation on the nature of the beatific life to come in comparison to the ordinary mode of understanding that we enjoy here on earth by natural light. The first question is whether, on the part of the seer, there needs to be an "additional light" added to the beatified intellect in order to see God. The second question is whether, on the part of the object known, i.e., God, we know by way of a similitude.
In to better understand the question, we must consider a few points of scholastic psychology. Material objects are said to be "potentially intelligible." By the working of the intellect, we make these objects actually intelligible, bringing about the "impressed species" (means by which we know). Then, through this impressed species, we come to actually understand by way of the "expressed species," (that in which we know) which we may compare to the speaking of a word, yet mental.
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