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The active intellect (
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
: ''intellectus agens''; also translated as agent intellect, active intelligence, active reason, or productive intellect) is a concept in classical and medieval
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
. The term refers to the formal (''morphe'') aspect of the intellect ('' nous''), in accordance with the theory of
hylomorphism Hylomorphism (also hylemorphism) is a philosophical theory developed by Aristotle, which conceives every physical entity or being ('' ousia'') as a compound of matter (potency) and immaterial form (act), with the generic form as immanently re ...
. The nature of the active intellect was the subject of intense discussion in medieval philosophy, as various Muslim, Jewish and Christian thinkers sought to reconcile their commitment to Aristotle's account of the body and soul to their own theological commitments. At stake in particular was in what way Aristotle's account of an incorporeal soul might contribute to understanding of the nature of eternal life.


Aristotle's conception

The idea is first encountered in
Aristotle's Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
''De Anima'', Book III. Following is the translation of one of those passages (''De Anima'', Bk. III, ch. 5, 430a10-25) by Joe Sachs, with some notes about the Greek:
...since in nature one thing is the material ( ''hylē'') for each kind ''( genos)'' (this is what is in potency all the particular things of that kind) but it is something else that is the causal and productive thing by which all of them are formed, as is the case with an art in relation to its material, it is necessary in the soul ('' psychē'') too that these distinct aspects be present;
the one sort is intellect ('' nous'') by becoming all things, the other sort by forming all things, in the way an active condition (''
hexis Hexis ( grc, ἕξις) is a relatively stable arrangement or disposition, for example a person's health or knowledge or character. It is an Ancient Greek word, important in the philosophy of Aristotle, and because of this it has become a traditio ...
'') like
light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 t ...
too makes the colors that are in potency be at work as colors (''to phōs poiei ta dynamēi onta chrōmata
energeia In philosophy, potentiality and actuality are a pair of closely connected principles which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his ''Physics'', ''Metaphysics'', ''Nicomachean Ethics'', and ''De Anima''. The ...
i chrōmata'').
This sort of intellect
hich is like light in the way it makes potential things work as what they are Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County Ijrud County ( fa, شهرستان ایجرود) is located in Zanjan province, Iran. The c ...
is separate, as well as being without attributes and unmixed, since it is by its thinghood a
being-at-work In philosophy, potentiality and actuality are a pair of closely connected principles which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his ''Physics'', ''Metaphysics'', ''Nicomachean Ethics'', and ''De Anima''. The ...
, for what acts is always distinguished in stature above what is acted upon, as a governing source is above the material it works on.
Knowledge (''epistēmē''), in its being-at-work, is the same as the thing it knows, and while knowledge in potency comes first in time in any one knower, in the whole of things it does not take precedence even in time.
This does not mean that at one time it thinks but at another time it does not think, but when separated it is just exactly what it is, and this alone is deathless and everlasting (though we have no memory, because this sort of intellect is not acted upon, while the sort that is acted upon is destructible), and without this nothing thinks.
The passage tries to explain "how the human intellect passes from its original state, in which it does not think, to a subsequent state, in which it does." He inferred that the ''energeia''/''dynamis'' distinction must also exist in the soul itself., page 3 Aristotle says that the
passive intellect The passive intellect (Latin: ''intellectus possibilis''; also translated as potential intellect or material intellect), is a term used in philosophy alongside the notion of the active intellect in order to give an account of the operation of the i ...
receives the
intelligible form An intelligible form in philosophy refers to a form that can be apprehended by the intellect. According to Ancient and Medieval philosophers, the intelligible forms are the things by which we understand. These are genera and species, insofar as g ...
s of things, but that the active intellect is required to make the potential knowledge into actual knowledge, in the same way that light makes potential colors into actual colors. The passage is often read together with ''
Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
'', Book XII, ch.7-10, where Aristotle also discusses the human mind and distinguishes between the active and passive intellects. In that passage Aristotle appears to equate the active intellect with the " unmoved mover" and God.


Interpretations

Sachs comments that the nature of the active intellect was "the source of a massive amount of commentary and of fierce disagreement"; elsewhere, chapter 5 of ''De Anima'' has been referred to as "the most intensely studied sentences in the history of philosophy". As Davidson remarks:
Just what Aristotle meant by potential intellect and active intellect - terms not even explicit in the ''De anima'' and at best implied - and just how he understood the interaction between them remains moot. Students of the history of philosophy continue to debate Aristotle's intent, particularly the question whether he considered the active intellect to be an aspect of the human soul or an entity existing independently of man.
Greek The early Greek commentators on Aristotle, in particular Alexander of Aphrodisias and Themistius, gave several different interpretations of the distinction between the active and passive intellects. Some of them regarded the active intellect as a power external to the human mind, Alexander going so far as to identify it with God. Later, both these interpretations, Neoplatonist ones, and perhaps others, influenced the development of an important Arabic philosophical literature, using the term ''
'aql ‘Aql ( ar, عقل, meaning "intellect"), is an Arabic language term used in Islamic philosophy or theology for the intellect or the rational faculty of the soul or mind. It is the normal translation of the Greek term '' nous''. In jurisprudenc ...
'' as the translation for ''nous''. This literature was later translated into, and commented upon, in Latin and Hebrew. Jewish and Islamic
Al-Farabi Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a renowned early Isl ...
and Avicenna, and also the Jewish philosopher
Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...
, agreed with the "external" interpretation of active intellect, and held that the active intellect was the lowest of the ten emanations descending through the celestial spheres. Maimonides cited it in his definition of
prophecy In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or p ...
where
Prophecy is, in truth and reality, an emanation sent forth by the Divine Being through the medium of the Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, and then to his imaginative faculty.
The more strictly Aristotelian Muslims (in particular Avempace and Averroes) wrote about how one could conjoin oneself with the active intellect, thus attaining a kind of philosophical nirvana. The reason of the Islamic and Jewish Aristotelians for positing a single external Agent Intellect is that all (rational) human beings are considered by Aristotelians to possess or have access to a fixed and stable set of concepts, a unified correct knowledge of the universe. The only way that all human minds could possess the same correct knowledge is if they all had access to some central knowledge store, as terminals might have access to a mainframe computer . This mainframe is the Agent Intellect, the "mind" of the universe, which makes all other cognition possible. Western Christian In medieval and Renaissance Europe some thinkers, such as Siger of Brabant, adopted the interpretation of Averroes on every point, as did the later school of "Paduan Averroists".
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
elaborated on Aristotle's distinction between the active intellect and passive intellect in his ''Disputed Questions on the Soul'' and his commentary on Aristotle's ''De anima'', arguing, against Averroes, that the active intellect is part of the individual human personality. In his '' Summa Theologica'', Aquinas states that "according to the teaching of our Faith, this separated intellect is God Himself, who is the creator of the soul and in whom alone the soul is beatified." Citing Gregory of Nyssa, he said "man has intellective understanding along with the angels" which are called 'minds' and 'intellects' because they have no other power than the intellective power and the will (Question 79, article 1). A third school, of "Alexandrists", rejected the argument linking the active intellect to the immortality of the soul, while hastening to add that they still believed in immortality as a matter of religious faith. (See
Pietro Pomponazzi Pietro Pomponazzi (16 September 1462 – 18 May 1525) was an Italian philosopher. He is sometimes known by his Latin name, ''Petrus Pomponatius''. Biography Pietro Pomponazzi was born in Mantua and began his education there. He completed h ...
; Cesare Cremonini.) The active intellect, in the sense described, is more properly called the Agent Intellect, as it is the force triggering intellection in the human mind and causing thoughts to pass from the potential to the actual. It must not be confused with the "intellect in act", which is the result of that triggering, and is more akin to the psychological term "active knowledge". Another term for the final result of intellection, that is to say a person's accumulated knowledge, is the "acquired intellect". Angels are called 'minds' and 'intellects' because they have no other power than the intellective power and the will.


See also

* Aristotelianism * Noetics * John Philoponus


References


Sources

* *''Commentarium magnum in Aristotelis De anima libros'', ed. Crawford, Cambridge (Mass.) 1953: Latin translation of Averroes' long commentary on the De Anima
Walter Burley, Commentarium in Aristotelis De Anima L.III
''Critical Edition'' and Palaeography transcription by Mario Tonelotto *Averroes (tr. Alain de Libera), ''L'intelligence et la pensée'', Paris 1998: French translation of Averroes' long commentary on book 3 of the De Anima *Essays on Aristotle's ''De Anima'', ed. Nussbaum and Rorty: Oxford 1992 *Juan Fernando Sellés (2012), ''El intelecto agente y los filósofos. Venturas y desventuras del supremo hallazgo aristotélico sobre el hombre'', Tomo I (Siglos IV a.C. - XV), EUNSA, Pamplona, p. 650.


External links


Catholic Encyclopedia article
Philosophy of Aristotle Concepts in metaphysics Medieval philosophy {{DEFAULTSORT:Active Intellect it:Intelletto#Intelletto agente o attivo