Need and sufficiency

Use in the book

Need is an explanatory category running from the opening account of human vulnerability to the argument for a supreme principle. Matter needs form; quality needs its subject and a higher source of action; a changing being seeks what it lacks; mind needs truth and goodness. Ficino repeatedly reasons from such dependence toward something more self-sufficient. A quality's lack of sufficiency in existing prevents it from supplying a body with complete sufficiency in acting. Likewise, an intellect that seeks truth cannot itself be truth, and a mind that improves through understanding is not the Good itself. The vocabulary does not always signify emotional dissatisfaction or bodily deprivation. It often marks a structural relation: one thing cannot be what it is or do what it does without another. Even forms said to subsist through themselves can remain dependent on a higher cause, so local independence from matter should not be confused with God's unrestricted self-sufficiency.

Divine goodness needs no creatures, which is crucial to distinguishing necessary willing of the end from contingent means. At II.13.23 the created world needs only the perfection sufficient to indicate its author’s higher perfection according to its powers. This is a standard of adequacy relative to the work’s purpose, not a claim that the world equals God or actualizes every possible perfection.

Further passage references. I.1.1; I.3.4–I.3.923456; I.5.4–I.5.623, I.5.16; I.6.10–I.6.172345678.

Selected annotated passages.

II.12.14. Lack of divine need supports the distinction between an end and optional means.

II.13.23. Sufficiency is relative to the created work’s representational task.

Places to read

1. I.5.4Motion toward an end is interpreted as a sign of incompleteness
2. I.6.17Mind’s striving to become better distinguishes it from goodness itself
3. II.2.3A composed whole needs both parts and their unifying source
4. II.7.16Operational dependence on an end is used to argue for dependence in essence

Translation in this edition

“Suffice for itself in acting” and “suffice for itself in essence” at II.7.16 preserve the distinction on which the inference depends. The given English “in need of nothing” at II.9.8 concerns the perfection of knowledge nearest its object, not the absence of all differentiation among created beings.

The English “according to the work’s powers” spells out pro viribus. The “apparent advantage” of one part at II.12.19 is not automatically the good of the whole.

careo / expers

careo / expers. Printed forms: careat; carere; caret; expers.

To lack or be without. Lacking life, lacking one's own light, and being exempt from change concern different privations; transparent mediation is compatible with not originating light. References: IV.1.2, IV.1.29, IV.2.22. See Need and sufficiency.

carere / deesse / destituere

carere / deesse / destituere. Printed forms: careat; deesse; Deest; destitutam.

To lack or be absent; to leave deprived. The supreme must lack no good, and no region of immensity may be left without the first good’s presence. References: II.2.10, II.4.3, II.6.6, II.9.5. See Need and sufficiency.

egere / indigere

egere / indigere. Printed forms: egeat; eget; indiget.

To need; lack of self-sufficiency in being or operation. Dependence concerns constituents, preservation, and completion by an end, rather than merely emotional wanting. References: II.2.3, II.6.4, II.7.16, II.7.22. See Need and sufficiency.

exigere / requirere

exigere / requirere. Printed forms: exigit; requireret.

To require or demand a prerequisite. Outward diffusion requires inward preservation in the reported theory; a regress of required choices blocks any beginning. References: II.6.19, II.7.16, II.8.3. See Need and sufficiency.

indigentia

indigentia. Printed forms: indigentiam.

Need or lack of sufficiency. Human need appears in the opening existential comparison; change through need later points toward a fuller source beyond the changing thing. References: I.1.1, I.5.4. See Need and sufficiency.

inquietudo / imbecillitas

inquietudo / imbecillitas. Printed forms: imbecillitatemque; inquietudinem.

Restlessness of soul and frailty of body. These different human disadvantages help motivate the opening comparison with other living creatures and the argument for post-mortem blessedness. References: I.1.1. See Need and sufficiency.

sufficere / sufficientia

sufficere / sufficientia. Printed forms: sufficere; sufficiens; sufficientiam; sufficiet.

To be enough or sufficient for a task; sufficiency. A duplicate world is surplus if one suffices; inability to suffice in operation signals deeper dependence. References: II.2.3, II.2.12, II.7.16. See Need and sufficiency.

sufficientia / sufficienter

sufficientia / sufficienter. Printed forms: sufficienter; sufficientiam.

Sufficiency for a specified task or mode of being. Quality’s insufficiency in existing grounds its insufficiency in operating; the argument does not deny all qualitative action. References: I.3.7. See Need and sufficiency.