ASSENT

ASSENT, Assensus,an agreement or acquiescence of the mind, to something proposed, or affirmed.—Thus, to assent to any proposition, is to allow it true, or to perceive its truth. See TRUTH.

The Schoolmen observe, that to every proposition, however compound or complex it may be, there only goes one assent of the mind.—Thus, in the conditional proposition, "If the sun shines it is day"; there is only one assent of the mind, which regards the connection of the effect with the condition. So in the disjunctive proposition, "Peter either studies, or does not study"; the mind does not give a twofold assent to the two parts thereof, it being enough that Peter does either the one or the other, for the proposition to be true. See PROPOSITION.



Assent is distinguished, like faith, into implicit, or blind; and explicit, or seeing. See FAITH, etc. Others distinguish it into actual and habitual—Actual assent, is a judgment whereby the mind perceives a thing to be true.—Habitual assent consists in certain habits induced in the mind by repeated acts. See HABIT and HABITUATION. To this belongs faith, which is an assent arising from the authority of the person who speaks: Such also is opinion, which is defined as an assent of the mind cum formidine oppositi, etc. See FAITH, OPINION, etc.

For the measures and degrees of assent, see Probability, Verisimilitude, Evidence, Demonstration, etc. Malebranche lays it down as an axiom, or principle of method, never to allow anything for truth, from which we can forbear our assent without some secret reproach of our own reason. See INTEGRITY, METHOD, MAXIM, etc.

ASSENT