The Degrees of Knowledge

Overview

About five hundred pages, Jacques Maritain’s major work in epistemology, published in 1932, which orders the kinds of human knowledge into a hierarchy. The subtitle states the book’s entire method in four words, distinguish in order to unite, and the work’s actual achievement is making good on that promise across an ambitious hierarchy of human knowledge.

The first part treats the sciences of nature, the philosophy of nature and metaphysics, arguing that each has its own object and method and that critical realism can answer Descartes and Kant. The second part rises to the knowledge of God, through natural theology, faith and finally the mystical experience described by John of the Cross.

What happens

The sciences of nature. The book opens by treating the sciences of nature as a distinct order of knowledge with its own specific object and method, establishing the first rung of the hierarchical structure the rest of the work will build upon.

The philosophy of nature. Maritain distinguishes the philosophy of nature from the empirical natural sciences, treating this as a genuinely separate discipline addressing different questions about nature through different methods rather than simply a more abstract version of empirical science.

Metaphysics. The first part concludes by treating metaphysics as the highest natural science, addressing being as such rather than any particular kind of being, completing the hierarchy of natural knowledge before the book’s second part ascends toward theological knowledge.

Critical realism against Descartes and Kant. Throughout the first part, Maritain defends critical realism as a considered answer to both Descartes and Kant, arguing the mind can actually know mind-independent reality without either Cartesian certainty’s excessive demands or Kantian restriction to mere appearance.

Natural theology and faith. The second part opens the ascent to knowledge of God, beginning with natural theology’s rational arguments and continuing through faith as a genuinely distinct mode of knowing, each building toward but not simply replacing the knowledge developed in the stages before it.

Mystical experience and John of the Cross. The book’s ascent culminates in mystical experience as described by John of the Cross, treating this as the highest degree of knowledge within Maritain’s hierarchy, genuinely continuous with but exceeding what natural theology and faith alone can provide.

How to read it

Read the subtitle’s method, distinguish in order to unite, as the book’s genuine organizing principle rather than a clever turn of phrase; Maritain’s entire hierarchical structure depends on carefully separating different kinds of knowledge before showing how they actually relate to and build upon one another.

Pay close attention to how critical realism functions as Maritain’s considered middle path between Descartes and Kant; rather than simply rejecting modern epistemology, he engages both thinkers directly, arguing his own position can secure genuine knowledge of reality without either philosopher’s specific difficulties.

Notice how the second part’s ascent from natural theology through faith to mystical experience treats each stage as genuinely distinct rather than collapsing them into simply different names for identical experience; this careful distinction is central to understanding what Maritain actually means by knowledge at each specific level.

Consider the book’s considerable difficulty and length as reflecting its genuinely ambitious scope; attempting to order the entire range of human knowledge, from empirical science through mystical experience, within a single coherent hierarchical framework requires sustained, demanding argument across many distinct fields.

Read this work alongside Maritain’s own Art and Scholasticism to see how the same underlying Thomist commitment to careful philosophical distinction, applied there specifically to aesthetics, extends here into a considerably more comprehensive account of knowledge’s entire hierarchical structure.

Questions it raises

• Does Maritain’s hierarchical ordering of knowledge, from empirical science through philosophy of nature and metaphysics to theology and mystical experience, successfully avoid collapsing these genuinely different modes of knowing into a single undifferentiated continuum, or does the hierarchy itself risk implying these are simply degrees of the same underlying activity?
• How persuasive is critical realism as an answer to both Descartes and Kant? Does Maritain’s position genuinely secure knowledge of mind-independent reality, or does it face its own distinct difficulties that his response to these two major modern philosophers does not fully address?
• What does treating mystical experience as the highest degree of knowledge, continuous with but exceeding natural theology and faith, suggest about how Maritain understood the relationship between philosophical reason and specifically religious or spiritual experience? Does this framework adequately account for mystical experience’s genuinely distinct character?
• How does the book’s considerable difficulty and demanding scope shape its actual accessibility and influence compared to more focused philosophical works addressing narrower questions? Does attempting this comprehensive hierarchy require sacrifices in depth at any particular level to achieve its overall breadth?
• Given that this work addresses both natural science and mystical theology within a single framework, how does Maritain’s approach compare to more contemporary attempts to relate scientific and religious knowledge? Does his specifically Thomist hierarchical structure offer genuine resources for addressing similar questions today?
• What does the subtitle’s method, distinguish in order to unite, suggest about Maritain’s broader philosophical temperament and approach beyond this specific work? Does this method appear consistently across his other writings, and does it represent a genuinely distinctive contribution to how philosophy should organize different kinds of knowledge?