Work · Medieval & Scholastic
On the Unity of the Intellect against the Averroists
Each individual human being thinks: against the doctrine of a single intellect.
Introduction
Thomas wrote this short polemical treatise in Paris in 1270, against masters of the arts faculty, among them Siger of Brabant, who followed Averroes in teaching a single intellect for all humans. Most of the five chapters argue from Aristotle’s text and from Greek and Arabic commentators that Averroes misread Aristotle. The key philosophical point is that it is the individual human being who thinks: if thought did not belong to the individual, no one could be said to know anything. The treatise ends with a challenge to answer in writing, not “in corners” or “before boys”. In December 1270 the bishop of Paris, Étienne Tempier, condemned thirteen propositions, among them the unity of the intellect.
Connections
Criticizes
- Long Commentaries on Aristotlec. 1190 · Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
Answered in
- On the Intellective Soul (De anima intellectiva)c. 1273 · Siger of Brabant
Criticized in
- On the Immortality of the Soul1516 · Pietro Pomponazzi
More works by Thomas Aquinas
- c. 1265Summa contra Gentiles
- 1273Summa theologiae
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