48. The Active and Passive Intellect: Powers and Actualization

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Two Powers of the Intellect #

• Passive/Undergoing Intellect (intellectus possibilis): The faculty that receives intelligible forms; exists in potency to all intelligible things; analogous to matter
• Active/Agent Intellect (intellectus agens): The faculty that actualizes intelligible forms by separating universal natures from singular material conditions; analogous to art or efficient cause
• Both powers are necessary for human understanding to occur; neither alone is sufficient

The Problem of Actualization #

• Material things are only potentially understandable because bound to singular matter
• Images in imagination contain natures but are not actually intelligible until separated from material conditions
• The active intellect makes potentially intelligible things actually intelligible
• Without this active power, there would be a gap between material singulars and immaterial universals

Immateriality as Condition for Intelligibility #

• The passive intellect must be immaterial to receive all material natures without determination by any particular one
• The active intellect is even more immaterial and actual than the passive intellect
• Things become understandable to the extent they are separated from matter
• This explains why only immaterial substances understand by their very nature

Rejection of Platonic Forms #

• Aristotle rejects Plato’s theory that universal forms exist in a separate world
• If universals existed separately, they could act directly on the intellect as sensible objects act on senses
• Since universals do not exist separately, an active power is required to extract them from sensible particulars

Key Arguments #

The Analogy of Matter and Art (Potency and Act) #

• In the material world: matter receives forms through the action of art/efficient cause
• In the intelligible world: passive intellect receives intelligible forms through active intellect
• Just as matter cannot actualize itself, the passive intellect cannot actualize itself
• Therefore, an active principle is necessary in both orders
• Structure: “In every nature, wherever something goes from ability to act, there is something whereby it is made actual”

The Light Analogy #

• Light makes potentially visible things actually visible by its activity
• The active intellect makes potentially intelligible things actually intelligible
• Both are acts that actualize potencies in their respective orders
• The analogy shows how an immaterial power can work with material images
• This explains the relationship: as light is to sight, so is active intellect to passive intellect

The Problem of Universals from Experience #

• Sensing gives us individual dogs (singulars, material)
• Memory gathers many memories of dogs
• Experience is a collection of singulars
• But “what a dog is” (the universal) is actually understandable and receivable in passive intellect
• Therefore, a power is needed to separate the universal from the images of singulars

Important Definitions #

Hexis (ἕξις) / Habitus #

• NOT to be confused with habitus meaning acquired habit
• Refers to the active intellect as having/possessing its own actuality
• In the broad sense: having is opposed to not having or lacking something
• Indicates the active intellect is a form/act rather than mere potency
• Thomas clarifies that even the habit of natural understanding presupposes this acting-upon intellect

Universal vs. Singular #

• Singular: what is sensed; exists in matter; individual
• Universal: what is understood; separated from matter; common to many
• The same thing can be singular in sensation and universal in understanding
• Universals do not exist separately (contra Plato) but exist only in mind

Intelligible / Actually Understandable #

• Something is intelligible to the extent it is separated from matter
• Material things are potentially intelligible (in ability)
• Immaterial things are actually intelligible (in act)
• Degree of intelligibility corresponds to degree of immateriality

Examples & Illustrations #

Learning About Dogs #

• Sensing individual dogs at different times (singular, material)
• Remembering previous dogs seen
• Gathering experience from many memories of dogs
• Active intellect separates what is common to all these dogs (universal nature)
• Passive intellect receives this universal and understands “what a dog is”
• Demonstrates how universals emerge from singular sensory experience

The Light Bulb and Brain Analogy #

• If a light bulb is the only light source and breaks, seeing becomes impossible
• But this doesn’t make the light bulb the organ of sight
• Similarly, brain damage interferes with thinking, but doesn’t make brain the organ of thought
• Brain may be necessary as seat of images, but intellect itself is immaterial

The Blank Tablet #

• Passive intellect is like a blank slate before anything is written on it
• Just as blank slate has no determinate marks but can receive any marks, intellect has no determinate nature but receives all intelligible forms
• Shows intellect’s radical openness to all objects of knowledge

Questions Addressed #

How Can an Immaterial Intellect Be Acted Upon by Material Things? #

• Material things cannot directly act on immaterial intellect
• Intellect undergoes in a different way than matter does
• Images in imagination serve as intermediaries
• Active intellect separates intelligible forms from material conditions
• Once separated, forms can be received by passive intellect

Why Doesn’t Everything Understandable Also Understand? #

• Material things are only potentially understandable
• They become actually understandable only when separated from matter
• This separation occurs only in mind
• Thing itself remains material and cannot understand
• Only immaterial substances understand by their very nature

What Is the Relationship Between Active and Passive Intellect? #

• Active intellect is to passive intellect as art is to matter
• Active intellect actualizes what passive intellect receives in potency
• Both necessary; neither alone sufficient for understanding
• Active intellect does not contain determined natures
• Rather, it abstracts natures from images and makes them intelligible

Pedagogical Emphasis #

Berquist emphasizes:

• The importance of understanding key Greek terms in their original language (hexis, νοῦς)
• The necessity of careful reading: “you’ve got to learn how to read again” when studying Aristotle
• Thomas Aquinas as indispensable guide to understanding Aristotle
• The connection between epistemology and metaphysics
• The practical importance: understanding human intellect’s nature and operations
• Personal testimony on need for quiet, contemplative period to penetrate these texts