Please wait a minute...
Frontiers of Philosophy in China

ISSN 1673-3436

ISSN 1673-355X(Online)

CN 11-5743/B

Postal Subscription Code 80-983

Front. Philos. China    2014, Vol. 9 Issue (2) : 229-240    https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-003-014-0019-9
research-article
Aristotle, the Intellect, and Cognition
Thomas M. Robinson()
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2M8, Canada
 Download: PDF(243 KB)  
 Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks
Abstract

It is argued in this paper that the famous “Active Intellect” of De Anima 3.5 is not God, as Alexander of Aphrodisias held, but rather an unchanging, eternally cognizing Intellect which serves as the indispensable condition for the operation of human intellect. It is “at the door” for each individual, ready to flow in as a stream of light—a light which renders potential objects of cognition knowable, just as visible light makes potentially visible objects visible—from outside that door (thyrathen) any time it is opened. Its existence cannot serve, however, as a proof of the immortality of human intellect, since, being unchanging, it can never possess a feature of human intellect which is characterized by nothing if not change, and that is memory.

Keywords Active Intellect      Aristotle      cognition      dualism      essentialism      immortality      memory      perception      Prime Mover      soul     
Issue Date: 04 July 2014
 Cite this article:   
Thomas M. Robinson. Aristotle, the Intellect, and Cognition[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2014, 9(2): 229-240.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fpc/EN/10.3868/s030-003-014-0019-9
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fpc/EN/Y2014/V9/I2/229
[1] HU Xinkai. Complete Virtue and the Definition of Happiness in Aristotle[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2020, 15(2): 293-314.
[2] SUN Ning. Embodied Perception and the Schemed World: Merleau-Ponty and John Dewey[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2019, 14(3): 423-434.
[3] HUANG Zhipeng. Encounter between Soul and Human Nature: An Examination of Xia Dachang’s “Xingshuo”[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2019, 14(2): 264-283.
[4] Thierry Meynard. What the “Failure” of Aristotelian Logic in Seventeenth Century China Teaches Us Today: A Case Study of the Mingli Tan [J]. Front. Philos. China, 2019, 14(2): 248-263.
[5] Michele Ferrero. Motivation to Act in Confucianism and Christianity: In Matteo Ricci’s The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (Tianzhu Shiyi 天主實義)[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2019, 14(2): 226-247.
[6] Rina Marie Camus. “Athl-Ethics”: Virtue Training in Mencius and Aristotle[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2019, 14(1): 152-170.
[7] Yasuhira Yahei Kanayama. Socrates’ Humaneness: What His Last Words Meant[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2019, 14(1): 111-131.
[8] Lisa Raphals 瑞麗. When Virtues, Roles and Duties Fail: Early Greek and Chinese Accounts of Akrasia[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2019, 14(1): 29-46.
[9] Hans-Georg Moeller. Necessity and Memory in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit: A Reconstruction[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2018, 13(4): 505-517.
[10] Mario Wenning. Tragic Recognition: Revisiting Hegel’s Conception of Ethical Life[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2018, 13(4): 483-504.
[11] Timothy O’Connor. Consciousness, Free Will, and the Sciences of the Mind[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2018, 13(3): 394-401.
[12] SUN Ning. Natural Realism or Transactionalism: On the Relationships between Putnam and Two Pragmatists, James and Dewey[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2017, 12(2): 295-305.
[13] ZHANG Weite. Descartes’ Metaphysical Doubts about Clear and Distinct Perception[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2017, 12(1): 151-181.
[14] Alicia Hennig. Three Different Approaches to Virtue in Business- Aristotle, Confucius, and Lao Zi[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2016, 11(4): 556-586.
[15] Megan Altman. Heidegger on the Struggle for Belongingness and Being at Home[J]. Front. Philos. China, 2016, 11(3): 444-462.
Viewed
Full text


Abstract

Cited

  Shared   
  Discussed