The Alleged Activity of Active Intellect: a Wild Goose Chase Or a Puzzle to Be Solved?1
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DAVOUD ZANDI1 12 Received: August 2015
e-ISSN 2289-6023 International Journal of Islamic Thought ISSN 2232-1314 Vol. 8: (Dec.) 2015 015 Rational Explanation of the Relationship between the Material Intellect and the Active Intellect from the Perspective of Averroes DAVOUD ZANDI1 Received: 12 Received: August 2015 Accepted: 2 23 September ABSTRACT The relationship between the material intellect and the active intellect from Averroes’ perspective is an important and yet complicated part of his philosophy. His views on these issues are ambiguous since they are derived from the Aristotle’s theories which seem obscure in this regard. The aim of the present study is to discover Averroes’ final theory on the relationship between the material intellect and the active intellect and their connection to human soul. Reviewing various theories of Averroes on this issue, this study shows that despite ambiguity in his explanations, his final theory is that he believes these two intellects exist apart from human soul. Considering the relationship between the material intellect and the active intellect, he believes that in some aspects both of them are the same, yet they are different in some other aspects that is, regarding their acts, they are different because the active intellect acts as a creator of forms while the material intellect is just a receiver of the forms. Nevertheless, they are the same, since the material intellect achieves perfection through the active intellect. Keywords: active intellect, Aristotle, Averroes, material intellect, soul Intellection from the perspective of Averroes is an important and yet controversial field of his thought. In this respect he follows the Aristotelian tradition. -
On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle
Franz Brentano ON THE SEVERAL SENSES OF BEING IN ARISTOTLE To OJ) A€'YETaL 7/'OAAaxW~ Aristotle, Metaphysics Z, 1 Edited and Translated ~ Rolf George UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London 1975 Dedicated in veneration and gratitude to DR. ADOLPH TRENDELENBURG Professor of Philosophy at the University of Berlin My most revered teacher, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS the scholar so highly distinguished BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES in the advancement of our understanding of Aristotle. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, LTD. LONDON, ENGLAND COPYRIGHT © 1975 BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNlA ISBN: o-52()'()2346-3 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 72-89796 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Contents Editor's Preface . .. xi Preface ..................................... xv Introduction ................................. Chapter I. The Fourfold Distinction of Being. .. 3 Being is a homonym. Its several senses fit into the fourfold distinction of accidental being, being in the sense of being true, being of the categories, and potential and actual being. • . 3 Chapter II. Accidental Being . 6 Chapter III. Being in the Sense of Being True . 15 § 1. Of the true and the false . • • . • . .•. 1 5 § 2. Of the true and the false when considered in relation to the concept of being in the sense of being true and of non-being in the sense of being false . • . • . 22 Chapter IV. Potential and Actual Being . .. 27 § 1. The kind of being which is divided into actual and potential is being in the sense in which this name .is applied not only to that which is realized, that which exists, the really-being, but also to the mere real possibility of being. -
Summary Essay"
Muhammad Abdullah (19154) Book 4 Chapter 5 "Summary Essay" This chapter on 'The Peripatetic School' talks about this school and its decline. By 'peripatetic', it means the school of thought of Aristotle. Moreover, 'The Peripatetic School' was a philosophy school in Ancient Greece. And obviously its teachings were found and inspired by Aristotle. Other than that, its followers were called, 'Peripatetic'. At first, the school was a base for Macedonian influence in Athens. The school in earlier days -and in Aristotle's times- was distinguished by doing research in every field, like, botany, zoology, and many more. It tried to solve problems in every subject/field. It also gathered earlier views and writings of philosophers who came before. First, it talks about the difference in botanical writings of Theophrastus and Aristotle. Theophrastus was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic School. He was a plant biologist. Theophrastus wrote treatises in many areas of philosophy to improve and comment-on Aristotle's writings. In addition to this, Theophrastus built his own writings upon the writings of earlier philosophers. The chapter then differentiates between Lyceum (The Peripatetic School) and Ptolemaic Alexandria. Moreover, after Aristotle, Theophrastus and Strato shifted the focus of peripatetic philosophy to more of empiricism and materialism. One of Theophrastus' most important works is 'Metaphysics' or 'A Fragment'. This work is important in the sense that it raises important questions. This work seems to object Aristotle's work of Unmoved Mover. Theophrastus states that there's natural phenomenon at work. However, some interpretations suggest that Theophrastus goes against Platonist. Theophrastus says, "...the universe is an organized system in which the same degree of purposefulness and goodness should not be expected at every level." Additionally, the chapter points out that objecting the writings and building your own work upon it is what the 'real' Aristotelian way of doing work is. -
Aristotle on Thinking ( Noêsis )
Aristotle on Thinking ( Noêsis ) The Perception Model DA III.4-5. Aristotle gives an account of thinking (or intellect—noêsis ) that is modeled on his account of perception in Book II. Just as in perception, “that which perceives” ( to aisthêtikon ) takes on sensible form (without matter), so in thinking “that which thinks” ( to noêtikon ) takes on intelligible form (without matter). Similarly, just as in perception, the perceiver has the quality of the object potentially, but not actually, so, too, in understanding, the intellect is potentially (although not actually) each of its objects. Problem This leaves us with a problem analogous to the one we considered in the case of perception. There we wondered how the perceiver of a red tomato could be potentially (but not actually) red (prior to perceiving it), and yet become red (be actually red) in the process of perceiving it. Here the question is how the intellect that thinks about a tomato (or a horse) is potentially a tomato (or a horse), and then becomes a tomato (or a horse) in the process of thinking about it. The problem about thinking seems more severe: for although there is a sense in which the perceiver becomes red (the sense organ becomes colored red), there does not seem to be a comparable sense in which the intellect becomes a tomato (or a horse). (1) there is no organ involved, and (2) there does not seem to be room in there for a tomato (let alone a horse). The Differences from Perception As we will see, there are important differences between perceiving and understanding, beyond the fact the one involves taking on perceptible form and the other intelligible form. -
Redalyc.Imagination in Avicenna and Kant
Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía ISSN: 0188-6649 [email protected] Universidad Panamericana México Bäck, Allan Imagination in Avicenna and Kant Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía, núm. 29, 2005, pp. 101-130 Universidad Panamericana Distrito Federal, México Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=323027318006 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Imagination in Avicenna and Kant Allan Back Kutztown University The intellect thinks time in the now^ In comparing the views of Avicenna and Kant on the imagination, we find a striking congnience of doctrine, Kant's doctrines of the syntheses of the imagination in his Transcendental Deduction (both A and B) have remarkable similarities with Avicerma's views. For both Avicenna and Kant, the imagination serves to connect the phenomenal and the noumenal. At the least this comparison has the dual use of placing Kant's doctrines in the context of the Aristotelian tradition and of illuminatiiig the modem r significance of the thought of Avicenna, Since Kant's thought is more familiar to us than Avicenna's (although perhaps not as evident in itself), we can use Kant also to help us understand the claims of Avicenna, On the other hand, tliis comparison may help to support the claim that an understanding of Kant lies to a large extent in his medieval and post-medieval roots -just as Copernicus, in his own "Copemican revolution", was following certain earlier traditions. -
The Agent Intellect As" Form for Us" and Averroes's. Critique of Al-Farabi
Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía ISSN: 0188-6649 [email protected] Universidad Panamericana México Taylor, Richard C. The Agent Intellect as "form for us" and Averroes's. Critique of al-Farabi Tópicos, Revista de Filosofía, núm. 29, 2005, pp. 29-51 Universidad Panamericana Distrito Federal, México Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=323027318003 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative The Agent Intellect as "form for us" and Averroes's Critique of al-FarabT Richard C. Taylor Marquette University This article explicates Averroes's understanding of human knowing and abstraction in this three commentaries on Aristotle's De Anima. While Averroes's views on the nature of the human material intellect changes through the three commentaries until he reaches is famous view of the unity of the material intellect as one for all human beings, his view of the agent intellect as 'form for us' is sustained throughout these works. In his Long Commentary on the De Anima he reveals his dependence on al-Farabi for this notion and provides a detailed critique of the Farabian notion that the agent intellect is 'form for us' only as agent cause, not as our true formal cause. Although Averroes argues that the agent intellect must somehow be intrinsic to us as our form since humans 2tieper se rational and undertake acts of knowing by will, his view is shown to rest on an equivocal use of the notion of formal cause. -
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES to MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences Of
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Submitted to The College of Arts and Sciences of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology By Matthew Glen Minix UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Dayton, Ohio December 2016 MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew G. APPROVED BY: _____________________________________ Sandra A. Yocum, Ph.D. Dissertation Director _____________________________________ William L. Portier, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader. _____________________________________ Anthony Burke Smith, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ John A. Inglis, Ph.D. Dissertation Reader _____________________________________ Jack J. Bauer, Ph.D. _____________________________________ Daniel Speed Thompson, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Religious Studies ii © Copyright by Matthew Glen Minix All rights reserved 2016 iii ABSTRACT MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY NEO-THOMIST APPROACHES TO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY Name: Minix, Matthew Glen University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Sandra A. Yocum This dissertation considers a spectrum of five distinct approaches that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomist Catholic thinkers utilized when engaging with the tradition of modern scientific psychology: a critical approach, a reformulation approach, a synthetic approach, a particular [Jungian] approach, and a personalist approach. This work argues that mid-twentieth century neo-Thomists were essentially united in their concerns about the metaphysical principles of many modern psychologists as well as in their worries that these same modern psychologists had a tendency to overlook the transcendent dimension of human existence. This work shows that the first four neo-Thomist thinkers failed to bring the traditions of neo-Thomism and modern psychology together to the extent that they suggested purely theoretical ways of reconciling them. -
Theories of the Soul Vs. Medical Knowledge: Averroës As an Authority in Thirteenth-Century France
Theories of the Soul vs. Medical Knowledge: Averroës as an Authority in Thirteenth-Century France Heather Thornton McRae, University of Missouri The intellectual florescence of thirteenth-century France, and Paris in particular, was vibrant, yet it confronted scholastic thinkers with a range of both new and continuing problems. The most famous of the continuing problems was the how to fully reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with revealed scripture. Both had lengthy commentary traditions that complicated the attempt. Christian doctrine had the four Church Fathers as well as key medieval works, such as Peter Lombard’s Sentences, while Aristotle had commentaries from both the late antique and Islamic worlds as well as Christian commentaries for those few works available in Latin in the early Middle Ages. The most famous of the Muslim Aristotelian scholars in Europe was Ibn Rushd, known in Latin as Averroës, or often simply The Commentator. A twelfth-century Andalusi Islamic jurist, physician, theologian, and philosopher, Averroës presented curious and thoughtful scholars, such as Albertus Magnus, with the difficult question of how to use and learn from the knowledge that Averroës provided while not stumbling over his religiously problematic positions. At the heart of this conflict was the changing notion of auctoritas (authority). As late as the early twelfth century, men like William of St. Thierry were writing that knowledge was acquired through the intellect while auctoritas was exclusively the means for acquiring faith. 1 However, this long-held view changed at the turn of the twelfth century, which saw the end to what is sometimes called the Age of Authority, because men noted that authority was the weakest form of proof, as Thomas Aquinas observes time and again in his famous Summa 1 Heinrich Fichtenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages: 1000-1200, trans. -
Avicenna's Emanated Abstraction
volume 20, no. 10 ne of the largest ongoing debates in contemporary schol- april 2020 arship on Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, the 10th−11th-century Per- O sian philosopher) concerns his epistemology of the acqui- sition of intelligible forms (or concepts) between the more traditional “emanationists” and the more recent “abstractionists”. It is encourag- ing to see a topic in Avicenna (and Islamic philosophy more broadly) receive the kind of detailed scholarly attention regularly afforded to Avicenna’s Emanated many other figures in the history of philosophy. And for good reason. This is a paramount issue in Avicenna’s philosophy (which went on to influence both the Islamic and Western traditions in unrivaled fash- ion), and the two accounts need to be reconciled in a much more sat- Abstraction isfactory way. Emanationists — such as Rahman, Davidson, and Black, follow- ing major historical sources such as Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and Aqui- nas — argue that Avicenna envisions the universal intelligibles as emanated directly into human minds from the separate and eternal Active Intellect (hereafter AI). Abstractionists — such as Hasse and Gutas — argue that the intelligibles are rather the result of the hu- man intellectual activity of abstraction from sensory images. The debate boils down to this: From where do the intelligibles initially come — from above, i.e., the AI (in a more “Neo-Platonic” fashion), or from below, i.e., from sense experience and images (in a more “Aristo- Stephen R. Ogden telian” fashion)? Both sides can point to numerous seemingly proba- tive texts in Avicenna’s corpus.1 The Catholic University of America 1. -
Albert the Great
ALBERT THE GREAT (Albert of Lauingen, Albert of Cologne)—theologian, philsopher, natural scientist, Bishop of Regensburg, called doctor universalis, doctor expertus, a doctor of the Church, b. around 1200 in Lauingen in Swabia, d. November 15, 1280 in Cologne. Albert came from a family of Swabian knights. He studied in northern Italy, chiefly in Padua. In Padua in 1223 he entered the Dominicans. He was in the novitiate in Cologne and after completing his theological studies and receiving Holy Orders, from 1223 on he had the role of lector of the order in various convents (Hildesheim, Freiburg im Breisgau, Regensburg, and Strassburg). In the early 1240s, at the recommendation of the Dominican authorities, he went to Paris where he lectured on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and prepared for a magisterium in theology, which he obtained in 1245. In Paris he developed his scholarly and didactic work and his writings, bearing fruit in many eminent works and acquiring exceptional renown. In 1248 Albert was transferred to Cologne to organize a studium generale for the Dominicans of the German province, and he directed this until 1254. One of his students at that school was Thomas Aquinas, who probably also heard Albert’s lectures while in Paris. In 1252 Albert recommended Thomas for the position of Master of theology at the University of Paris. From 1254 to 1257 Albert was the provincial of the extensive German province. In Anagni, at the court of Pope Alexander IV, he participated in a defense of the mendicant orders (1256). He also led a disputation concerning Averroes’ doctrine of the unicity of the intellect. -
INTENTIONALITY in MEDIEVAL ARABIC PHILOSOPHY Deborah L
INTENTIONALITY IN MEDIEVAL ARABIC PHILOSOPHY Deborah L. Black, University of Toronto I. INTRODUCTION: THE ARABIC ORIGINS OF INTENTIONALITY It has long been a truism of the history of philosophy that intentionality is an invention of the medieval period. In light of the explicit homage that Brentano pays to the scholastic tradition in his revival of intentionality in the 19th century, this is, of course, hardly surprising.1 Within this standard narrative, the central place of Arabic philosophy has always been acknowledged, at least to the extent of noting that the Latin term intentio purports to be a translation of the Arabic term maʿnā.2 Still, the details of the Arabic contribution to the theory of intentionality remain obscure, even amongst specialists of Islamic philosophy. Part of this obscurity stems from the intrinsic difficulty of the Arabic material itself: the origins of Arabic accounts of intentionality are murky, and there is no 1 FRANZ BRENTANO, Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, A. C. RANCURELLO, D. B. TERRELL, AND L. L. MCALISTER (trans.), Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1973 (translation of Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt, 1874), pp. 88-89. There have, of course, been a number of attempts by historians of ancient philosophy to find theories of intentionality latent in ancient philosophy. See in particular the following articles by VICTOR CASTON: Aristotle and the Problem of Intentionality, «Philosophy and Phenomenological Research», 58 (1998), pp. 249–98; Something and Nothing: The Stoics on Concepts and Universals, «Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy», 17 (1999), pp. 145–213; Connecting Traditions: Augustine and the Greeks on Intentionality, in DOMINIK PERLER, (ed.), Ancient and Medieval Theories of Intentionality, Brill, Leiden 2001 («Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters», 76), pp. -
The Philosophical Prophetology of Isma'ılism in the Eleventh
The Philosophical Prophetology of Isma‘ılism− − in the Eleventh Century The Philosophical Prophetology of Isma‘ılism− − in the Eleventh Century1 Tatsuya KIKUCHI* The Isma‘ılıs− −− introduced Neoplatonism into their doctrine between the tenth and eleventh centuries. This resulted in a serious conflict between rational philosophy and revealed religion. The main objective of this study is to examine the conflict between these two positions from the −− − − − theory of HamıdA al-Dın al-Kirmanı (d. after 1020), who served FatimidA − − − Imam al-HakimA (d. 1021), by studying the prophetology in his RahaA al- ‘aql. Al-Kirmanı− − adopted al-Farabı’s−− − theory on the active intellect (‘aql fa‘‘al− ) and his prophetic doctrine explicated by the active intellect regards − the natiqA as the top of the sublunar world in his philosophical cosmology − −− − and thus, justifies the authority of the natiqA . Like al-Farabı’s philosopher- − − − − king, al-Kirmanı’s natiqAA has conjunction (ittisal) with the active intellect and accepts the illumination from it in the imaginative stage of his soul. However, al-Kirmanı− − rejected the acceptance of the illumination in the stage of the acquired intellect (‘aql mustafad− ), the highest level of the human intellect, while al-Farabı−− − believed that the philosopher-king attained the stage of the acquired intellect before accepting the illumination in his imaginative stage. If al-Kirmanı− − had allowed human − beings other than the natiqA to attain the stage of the acquired intellect, an − ordinary man could have had the same capacity as the natiqA . Therefore, he rejected al-Farabı’s−− − acquired intellect and the possibility of a philosopher − reaching the natiqA ’s level by himself.