A Self-Forming Vessel

Aristotle, Plasticity, and the Developing Nature of the Intellect

Bibliographic Data

ID8410787
AuthorsShachar Freddy Kislev (Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume51
Issue3
Pages259-274
Publication date2020-07-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1773 • E-ISSN: 2332-0486
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00071773.2020.1741120
OpenAlexW3015731032
LanguageEN
References cited19

Highlighting the relations between De Anima II.5 and De Anima III.4, this paper argues that Aristotle held a surprisingly dynamic view of the intellect. According to this view, the intellect is in a constant development brought about by its own activity. This dynamic view distinguishes the intellect from both physical objects and from sense-perception. For Aristotle the intellect is a “nothing” that gradually becomes something by thinking. The paper traces the logic of this idea and its meaning. It defends the simple thesis that in the intellect alone first and second transitions are bound together: that every concrete thought is also a determination of the possibility of the intellect. This, I will suggest, was known to ancient commentators who distinguished between not two but three “intellects” in De Anima; not only the possible and actual intellects, but also the acquired intellect. It is the unique conceptual structure of the acquired intellect that this paper sketches

Art · Epistemology · Intellect · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Nothing · Perception · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy

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