106. The Active Intellect as a Power of the Soul

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Question: Is the Active Intellect Part of the Soul? #

Thomas addresses whether the active intellect (agens, the active power of understanding) is:

• A power of the human soul, OR
• A separated substance (the Averroist and Neoplatonic position)

Objections Against the Soul’s Active Intellect #

Four main objections are presented:

Objection 1 (John 1:9): The Word is the true light that “enlightens every man coming into this world.” If the Word enlightens us, then the active intellect cannot be a power of our soul but must be something higher—the Word itself.

Objection 2 (Aristotle, De Anima III): Aristotle says the active intellect “does not at one time understand and at the other time not understand.” But our soul sometimes understands and sometimes does not. Therefore, the active intellect cannot be part of our soul.

Objection 3 (Causality): If both the possible intellect (passive power) and the active intellect (active power) are powers of the soul, then man should be able to always understand whenever he wants—which is clearly false. The problem: agent and patient suffice for action; if both are present in the soul, understanding should always occur.

Objection 4 (Act and Potency): The active intellect is described by Aristotle as “a substance, an act.” But the possible intellect is in potency to all intelligible things. Nothing can be both act and potency with respect to the same thing. Therefore, the active intellect cannot be a power of the same soul that contains the possible intellect.

Thomas’s Solution: The Active Intellect IS a Power of the Soul #

The Key Principle: What partakes of something and is mobile and imperfect must presuppose something that is immobile and perfect. The soul is imperfect in understanding because:

• It does not understand all things
• It understands by motion (discourse), not all at once
• It is sometimes in potency to understanding

Therefore, the soul must derive its power of understanding from a superior intellect—ultimately from God.

The Derivation Model: Just as in other natural things, perfect things have their own powers derived from universal agents:

• The sun generates man, but man has his own generative power
• Animals have their own sensitive powers derived from the universal cause
• Therefore, the human soul—the most perfect of inferior things—must have its own power (the active intellect) derived from a superior understanding

Distinction from God: Some philosophers wrongly confuse two things:

1. The separated substance (God) from which the soul derives its power of understanding
2. The active intellect, which is a power of the soul itself

Thomas clarifies: There is a separated active intellect (God), but this does not mean there is no active intellect in the soul. The soul participates in the divine light and has its own active intellect as a power derived from that participation.

Why Man Cannot Always Understand #

Even with both active and passive intellects present in the soul, man does not always understand because:

• The active intellect requires particular likenesses from sensory images (phantasms)
• These images must be properly formed by experience
• The imagination must be disposed to provide these images
• Without sensory experience, there are no images to abstract from

Example: One cannot separate out the universal concept “cat” without prior experience of particular cats.

The Problem of Act and Potency Resolved #

The Apparent Contradiction: The possible intellect is in potency to intelligible forms. The active intellect is in act. How can both belong to the same soul?

The Solution: There is no contradiction because:

• The soul is in act with respect to immateriality (as a spiritual substance)
• The soul is in potency with respect to determinate intelligible forms
• The sensory images are in act with respect to particular likenesses
• The images are in potency with respect to immateriality and universality
• Therefore, act and potency operate in different lines (rationes)

Abstraction Properly Understood #

Abstraction does NOT mean:

• Physically removing the form from matter and taking it with you
• Cutting something out and leaving something behind

Abstraction DOES mean:

• Intellectually separating the universal from singular material conditions
• The active intellect makes images actually intelligible by drawing out their universal significance
• Compared to tracing paper over a gravestone: you take away the form without physically removing it

The image contains a particular likeness but is not yet understandable (intelligible in act). The active intellect, using the image as an instrument, confers actual intelligibility by abstracting the universal.

Key Arguments #

Argument from Perfection and Dependence #

1. What partakes of an attribute must presuppose something that has it essentially
2. The human soul partakes of understanding (it is not purely intellectual, as it has vegetative and sensitive powers too)
3. The human understanding is imperfect: it does not understand all things, it understands through motion (discourse), it proceeds from potency to act
4. Therefore, the soul must depend on a higher understanding from which it derives this power
5. This higher understanding is God
6. The active intellect is the soul’s participation in this divine illumination

Argument from Experience #

1. We experience ourselves separating universal forms from particular conditions
2. We do this in geometry, for instance
3. Any action belongs to something only through a principle formally inhering in that thing
4. Therefore, the power to abstract universals must be a principle inhering in us—a power of the soul
5. This power is the active intellect
6. Even though it derives from God, it is genuinely our own power

Argument from the Perfection of the Soul #

1. The human soul is the most perfect of inferior (non-divine) things
2. All other perfect natural things have their own powers derived from universal causes (e.g., generative power)
3. Therefore, the human soul must have its own power (the active intellect) derived from a superior understanding
4. To deny this would diminish the soul’s perfection and would rob humans of genuine free judgment and freedom

Important Definitions #

Intellectus Agens (Active Intellect) #

The active power of the human soul that makes intelligible forms actually understandable by separating (abstracting) them from singular material conditions present in sensory images. It is compared to light that makes colors actually visible.

Intellectus Possibilis (Possible Intellect) #

The passive power of the human soul that receives intelligible forms and is perfected by them. It is in potency to all intelligible things and sometimes understands, sometimes does not.

Abstrahere (To Abstract) #

Not a physical removal but an intellectual separation of the universal from particular material conditions. The active intellect makes the intelligible in potency (present in images) become intelligible in act.

Phantasma (Phantasm/Sensory Image) #

A particular likeness of a thing preserved in imagination. It contains the form of the thing but in a singular, material mode. The active intellect acts upon phantasms to make their universal significance intelligible in act.

Intelligible in Act vs. in Potency #

• In potency: Present in sensible things but not yet separated from material conditions; present in images in a particular way
• In act: Freed from material singularity; universal; capable of being received by the possible intellect

Examples & Illustrations #

The Tracing Paper Example #

Berquist illustrates abstraction by comparing it to taking tracing paper over a gravestone: “You take away the form, right? But I don’t, what, cut it out with the material and take it with me.” The point is that abstraction does not physically remove anything; it intellectually separates the universal from the singular material conditions.

The Light and Color Example #

Thomas compares the active intellect to light. Just as:

• Light makes colors actually visible (they are not visible without it)
• The medium (air) must be actually transparent for color to act on the eye

Similarly:

• The active intellect makes images actually intelligible
• Without the active intellect, images remain in potency to intelligibility
• The image is the instrument through which the active intellect operates

Questions Addressed #

Why Must the Active Intellect Be a Power of the Soul? #

Answer: Because:

1. We experience the act of abstracting universals from particular conditions
2. No action belongs to something except through a principle formally inhering in it
3. Therefore, this power of abstraction must inhere in us as a power of the soul
4. The soul, being the most perfect of inferior things, must have its own power derived from a higher source

How Can the Soul Be Both in Act and in Potency? #

Answer: Not with respect to the same thing. The soul is:

• In act with respect to immateriality (as a spiritual substance)
• In potency with respect to determinate intelligible forms
• The images are in act with respect to particular likenesses but in potency with respect to universality and immateriality

If John 1:9 Says the Word Enlightens Every Man, How Is There an Active Intellect in the Soul? #

Answer: The Word gives the soul the power of understanding. The active intellect is a participation in the divine light—not the divine light itself, but a power derived from it. Just as:

• The sun is the universal cause of light
• Yet particular luminous bodies have their own luminosity
• So God is the universal cause of understanding
• Yet the soul participates in this power as its own active intellect

Why Doesn’t Man Always Understand If He Has Both Active and Passive Intellects? #

Answer: Because the active intellect requires:

1. Particular sensory images (phantasms) from experience
2. These images must be properly formed and available
3. The imagination must be properly disposed
4. Without experience, no images exist to abstract from
5. The active intellect is not the object acting on the possible intellect; it makes the object (the image) actually intelligible

How Are the Active Intellect and the Divine Intellect Related? #

Answer:

• God (the “Father of Lights”) is the universal cause of all understanding
• The human soul derives its active intellect from God
• This is participation, not division: we receive something like the divine light in an imperfect way
• Just as all natural things have their own powers derived from universal causes, the soul has its active intellect derived from God
• The soul does not depend on a continuously acting external substance but has this power as its own