1. Ideology is a science which treats of ideas . -- As rational philosophy treats of entities as known by intellect, it must treat also of that in which and by which they are known, viz., ideas. Ideas constitute the object of Ideology.
2. Ideology may be divided into General and Special Ideology. -- Ideology may be concerned simply with the nature and origin of ideas in general; then it is General Ideology; or it may treat of the special nature of certain fundamental ideas and the manner in which our mind acquires them; then it is Special Ideology.
ART. I. -- NATURE OF IDEAS.
9. In every being we must distinguish the essence from the particular conditions which individuate the essence. -- God has given being to every creature according to an eternal type existing in his infinite mind, and according to which he can create an unlimited number of similar beings.{1} But each being, in realizing by its existence the divine type, is thereby invested with individuating conditions which make it that being and not another. But that which reproduces the divine type in a being and constitutes it in a determinate species, that which makes it specifically what it is, is called the essence of the being. This essence cannot really exist without being individualized; but it is, nevertheless, distinguishable from the conditions which individualize it. These conditions are seven in number: Form, figure, place, time, name, family, and country.
4. An idea is a mere intellectual representation of the essence of an object, by which that object is known. -- We not only know the concrete individual notes of sensible objects, but we may also know their essence. The intellect naturally perceives this essence abstracted from its particular conditions, and forms in itself an image or similitude which mentally reproduces the essence. This image formed in and by the intellect is called an idea.
5. The idea is not that which the intellect immediately knows, but that by which it knows the object. -- As the image of an object formed in the eye is not that which the eye perceives, but that by which the visible object becomes known, so that which the intellect immediately knows by the idea is the objective essence. But as the intellect is capable of reflecting npon itself, it may, by a second act, perceive the idea or mental representation by which it knows the essence.
ART. II. -- CHARACTERISTICS OF IDEAS.
6. An idea is subjective inasmuch as it resides in the subject knowing. -- The formation of an idea is a vital and immanent act which not only proceeds from the intellect, but is accomplished and exists in the intellect itself. Now an idea considered as residing in the subject knowing, is said to be subjective.
7. An idea is objective inasmuch as that which it immediately makes known to us is an object. -- That which an idea immediately manifests to the subject knowing, is not the idea itself, but the object perceived. Hence an idea considered as the representation of an object, a representation by which the object is immediately known, is said to be objective.
8. The characteristics of an idea vary according as we consider it subjectively or objectively. -- An idea considered subjectively participates in the conditions of the intellect that has the idea. Thus, if the intellect is infinite and uncreated, the idea considered subjectively is infinite and uncreated; it is finite and created, if the intellect is finite and created. In the same way, an idea, considered subjectively, is singular like the intellect itself; but, considered objectively, it is universal like the essence which it represents.
{1} See Metaphysics of the School, vol. ii., pp. 518, 519.