Hence two things must be shown: (1) The belonging of the perfectum to the concept of Being in general. (2) The suitability of the perfectum to serve as a guide that leads to the true highest being.
First we must say what is understood by perfectum. Answer: consentiens, agreeing. But agreement is in itself consentiens ad unum, agreeing in and to a unity.9 That is the formal concept of the perfectum; we must see how it is defined more precisely.
But just one question first: in what way does this perfection involve a characteristic of the ens in communi, a connection to the ens in communi, and how does it thus have its source in the fundamental axiom, the primum principium absolutum? That can be shown most clearly if we retrace the main steps in the construction, beginning with the fundamental axiom, in order to see whether and where we run across the perfectum in this procedure. With this, we can clarify what is distinctive about the foundation of this entire metaphysics.10
b) The main steps in the construction of the metaphysical system
α ) Beginning with what is thinkable in thought as judgment (assertion) and the principle of sufficient reason
Metaphysics begins with the nihil, the nothing, and thus creates the impression of a complete lack of presuppositions and simplicity; yet this nothing is conceived on the basis of contradictio. Accordingly, behind this inception of metaphysics there stands dictio, saying (cf. κατάφασις—ἀπόφασις) in the sense of assertion, λόγος. Precisely here, more sharply and clearly than anywhere else, we see how the predominance of thinking as “logic” emerges.
Now, if we observe that this inception of metaphysics is striving to delimit and define the ens in communi, then what we have indicated means that the essence of Being is defined by reverting to thought as judgment, and not just in the sense that the concept of Being is thought—every concept as a concept is thought—but the content of the concept
9. {Cf. ibid., pars I, caput I, sectio VII: Perfectum, §94: consensus ipse est perfectio, et unum, in quod consentitur, ratio perfectionis determinans.} [Agreement itself is perfection, and the unity in which it agrees is the determining reason of perfection.]
10. Nihil—possibile—rationale—ens—realitas—essentia—unum—verum—perfectum. Verum—perfectum: cuius determinationes sunt inseparabiles (ibid., §73). Veritas metaphysica est ordo plurium in uno (ibid., §89): in ordine coniunguntur plura eidem rationi conformiter (ibid., §86). [Nothing—possible—rational—being—reality—essence—one—true—perfect. True—perfect: that whose determinations are inseparable (ibid., §73). Metaphysical truth is the order of many in one (ibid., §89): many are combined in an order in conformity with the same reason (ibid., §86).]