The alleged activity of active intellect: A wild goose chase or a puzzle to be solved?
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Jan 24, 2014
Keywords:
nous nous poietikos nous pathetikos soul intellect God Deity actuality potentiality philosophy of mind Aristotle Thomas Aquinas Franz Brentano Victor Caston
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Abstract
Trying to describe the activity of Aristotle’s active intellect, we will sooner or later realize that we cannot find its right description, because Aristotle did not provide for one. He left us with many irreconcilable statements and questions with no answers. In the famous text Aristotle’s Two Intellects: a Modest Proposal Victor Caston claims that Aristotle did not describe the activity, because there simply is no such activity and we should therefore identify nous poietikos with God, because God too does nothing. Trying to find this lacking description is like going on a wild goose chase – Caston argues. In my text I will show that his solution, albeit tempting, is in fact a kind of “dissolution” and that a wild goose chase, although for many doomed to failure, can be fruitful. I will do so by presenting three groups or clusters of views on active intellect which – I believe – are philosophically significant. Caston’s proposal will be one of them, but not the privileged one. These three types of interpretations will hopefully provide us with an imagery that will help us somewhat come to terms with Aristotle’s succinctness.
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Kamińska, S. (2014). The alleged activity of active intellect: A wild goose chase or a puzzle to be solved?. Philosophical Problems in Science (Zagadnienia Filozoficzne W Nauce), (54), 79–126. Retrieved from https://zfn.edu.pl/index.php/zfn/article/view/46
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References
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Rollinger R. (2012), Brentano’s «Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint»: Its Background and Conception, [in:] Franz Brentano’s Metaphysics and Psychology: Upon the Sesquiscentennial of Franz Brentano’s Dissertation, ed. I. Tănăsescu, Zeta Books, Bucharest.
Russell B. (1972), A History of Western Philosophy, Oxford University Press, New York.
Shorey P. (1901), Aristotle’s De Anima, “The American Journal of Philology”, 2, pp. 149–164.
Sorabji R. (1990), Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and their Influence, Cornell University Press, London.
Sorabji R. (1991), From Aristotle to Brentano: The Development of the Concept of Intentionality, [in:] Aristotle and the Later Tradition, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, supp. vol.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1998), Selected Writings, Penguin Books Limited, New York.
Voegelin E. (1999), Plato and Aristotle, vol. III: Order and History, [in:] Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Vol. 16, ed. D.L. Germino, University of Missouri Press, Columbia.
White M. (2004), The Problem of Aristotle’s Nous Poietikos, “The Review of Metaphysics”, 4, pp. 725–739.
Zeller E. (1882), Die Philosophie der Griechen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, R. Reisland, Leipzig.
Aristotle (2002), De Anima, trans. D.W. Hamlyn, [in:] Aristotle’s De Anima, Books II and III, Clarendon Press, Oxford; copyright 1993.
Aristotle (2003), On the Soul, trans. P. Siwek, [in:] Aristotle’s Collected Works, vol. III, PWN, Warszawa [in Polish].
Aristotle (2008), Nicomachean Ethics, trans. D. Gromska, [in:] Aristotle’s Collected Works, PWN, Warszawa [in Polish].
Aristotle (2009), On the Soul, trans. J.A. Smith, HTML at Internet Classics: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.html.
Aristotle (2012), Line by Line Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima by E.T. Gendlin, http://www.focusing.org/aristotle/ Ae_Bk_1–2.pdf.
Augustine (1991), Confessions, trans. H. Chadwick, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Barnes J. (ed.) (1984), The Complete Works of Aristotle: Revised Oxford Translation, 2 vols., Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Barnes J. (ed.) (1995), The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Beere J. (2010), Thinking Thinking Thinking: On God’s Self-thinking in Aristotle’s Metaphysics Λ.9, http://www.gsap.hu-berlin. de/downloads/beere-thinking-thinking/view.
Bodeus R. (1996), Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals, State University of New York Press, New York.
Bos A.P. (2010), Aristotle on God as Principle of Genesis, “British Journal for the History of Philosophy”, 18 (3), pp. 363–377.
Brentano F. (1867), Die Psychologie des Aristoteles, insbesondere seine Lehre vom nous poietikos, Verlag von Franz Kirchheim, Meinz.
Brentano F. (1911), Aristoteles und seine Weltanschauung, Quelle & Meier, Leipzig.
Brentano F. (1911a), Aristoteles Lehre vom Ursprung des menschlichen Geistes, Veit & Comp., Leipzig (2nd ed., intr. by R. George, Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1980).
Brentano F. (1975), Aristotle and his Worldview, trans. R.M. Chisholm, R. George, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Brentano F. (1977), Aristoteles und seine Weltanschauung. Mit einer Einleitung von Roderick Chisholm, Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg.
Brentano F. (1977a), The Psychology of Aristotle, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Brentano F. (1978), On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle, trans. R. George, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Brentano F. (1986), Über Aristoteles, ed. R. George, Meiner Verlag, Hamburg.
Brentano F. (1987), On the Existence of God, trans. S. Krantz, Nijhoff, Dordrecht.
Broadie S. (1997), Nous and Nature in <
Burgess A.J. (1974), Brentano as a Philosopher of Religion, “International Journal for Philosophy of Religion”, 2, pp. 79–90.
Burnyeat M. (2008), Aristotle’s Divine Intellect, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee.
Caston V. (1998), Aristotle and the Problem of Intentionality, “Philosophy and Phenomenological Research”, 58 (2), pp. 249– 298.
Caston V. (1999), Aristotle’s Two Intellects: A Modest Proposal, “Phronesis”, 44, pp. 199–227.
Caston V. (2002), Aristotle on Consciousness, “Mind”, 111, pp. 751–815.
Caston V. (2006), Arisotle’s Psychology, [in:] The Blackwell Companion to Ancient Philosophy, eds. M.L. Gill, P. Pellegrin, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, pp. 316–346.
Corcilius K., Gregoric P. (2010), Separabilty vs Difference: Parts and Capacities of the Soul in Aristotle, “Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy”, 39, pp. 81–120.
Eberl J.T. (2005), Aquinas’s Account of Human Embryogenesis and Recent Interpretations, “Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine”, 30 (4), pp. 379–394.
Henry D. (2005), Embryological Models in Ancient Philosophy, “Phronesis”, 50.1, pp. 1–42.
Henry D. (2006), Aristotle on the Mechanisms of Inheritance, “Journal of the History of Biology”, 39, pp. 425–455.
Hill J., Marmodoro A. (2011), The Metaphysics of the Incarnation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Jacquette D. (ed.) (2006), The Cambridge Companion to Brentano, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Johnston R. (2011), Aristotle’s <
Kosman A. (1992), What Does the Maker Mind Make?, [in:] Essays on Aristotle’s De Anima, eds. M.C. Nussbaum, A. Oksenberg Rorty, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Kamińska S. (2012), What Can Grow from the Divine Seed? The Divinity of Human Beings according to Aristotle, “Studia Religiologica”, 45/3, pp. 173–182.
Kupreeva I. (2005), Aristotle on Growth: A Study of the Argument in GC 1.5, “Apeiron”, 38/3, pp. 103–159.
Lear J. (1988), Aristotle: The Desire to Understand, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Macfarlane P., Polansky R. (2009), God, the Divine, and Νοῦς in Relation to the <
Modrak D.K.W. (1991), The Nous-Body Problem in Aristotle, “The Review of Metaphysics”, 4, pp. 755–774.
Plato (1925), Plato in Twelve Volumes, trans. W.R.M. Lamb, Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd., Cambridge, MA and London.
Rollinger R. (2012), Brentano’s «Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint»: Its Background and Conception, [in:] Franz Brentano’s Metaphysics and Psychology: Upon the Sesquiscentennial of Franz Brentano’s Dissertation, ed. I. Tănăsescu, Zeta Books, Bucharest.
Russell B. (1972), A History of Western Philosophy, Oxford University Press, New York.
Shorey P. (1901), Aristotle’s De Anima, “The American Journal of Philology”, 2, pp. 149–164.
Sorabji R. (1990), Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and their Influence, Cornell University Press, London.
Sorabji R. (1991), From Aristotle to Brentano: The Development of the Concept of Intentionality, [in:] Aristotle and the Later Tradition, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, supp. vol.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1998), Selected Writings, Penguin Books Limited, New York.
Voegelin E. (1999), Plato and Aristotle, vol. III: Order and History, [in:] Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Vol. 16, ed. D.L. Germino, University of Missouri Press, Columbia.
White M. (2004), The Problem of Aristotle’s Nous Poietikos, “The Review of Metaphysics”, 4, pp. 725–739.
Zeller E. (1882), Die Philosophie der Griechen in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, R. Reisland, Leipzig.