The basic mechanism of the intellectual cognition in Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

The article analyses and interprets the basic structure of the process of intellectual cognition in Thomas Aquinas. After a short chapter on sense cognition, Aquinas?s understanding of the active intellect is presented, that is the illumination of the phantasms and the abstraction of the intelligible species by the active intellect. Special attention is given to the difference between the phantasm and the intelligible species. Consideration of the possible intellect shows two steps, the reception of the intelligible species and the creation of the concept, inner word or intentio intellecta. After that, two basic operations of the possible intellect are analyzed, simple apprehension and judgment. The article ends with a series of questions, pointing to possible problems in Aquinas?s understanding.