Bonaventure on the Agent Intellect

digital

Article

journal	RIVISTA DI FILOSOFIA NEO-SCOLASTICA
issue	RIVISTA DI FILOSOFIA NEO-SCOLASTICA - 2017 - 4. Il pensiero filosofico e teologico in Bonaventura da Bagnoregio
title	Bonaventure on the Agent Intellect
author	Tomáš Nejeschleba
publisher	Vita e Pensiero
format	Article \| Pdf
online since	03-2018
doi	http://filosofianeoscolastica.vitaepensiero.com/doi/10.26350/001050_000022
issn	00356247 (print) \| 18277926 (digital)
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Description Readers' comments
The issue of the agent intellect is one of the significant exegetical problems of Aristotle’s work. Medieval solutions to this issue were associated with Averroist monopsychism and its critique elaborated by Thomas Aquinas. This paper discusses the concept of the agent intellect in the works of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, which is often compared to Thomas’s concept on the basis that it similarly emphasises the immanence of the agent intellect as part of the human soul. Bonaventure, however, by building on the work of his Franciscan predecessors Alexander of Hales and John of la Rochelle, did not formulate an unambiguous concept of the agent intellect. The combination of Aristotelian noetics and Augustinian illumination creates room for the dual concept of the agent intellect, in which the agent intellect is not merely the difference of the human soul with the potential intellect, but it can also be identified with God, who illuminates human reason. However, Bonaventure’s doctrine of the agent intellect is not sufficiently systematic for us to be able to present a definitive interpretation, which also points to the fact that Bonaventure did not consider this issue to be of significant importance. keywords Medieval Epistemology, Agent Intellect, Aristotelianism, St. Bonaventure, Early Franciscan School Enter a comment for Bonaventure on the Agent Intellect

Description Readers' comments

The issue of the agent intellect is one of the significant exegetical problems of Aristotle’s work. Medieval solutions to this issue were associated with Averroist monopsychism and its critique elaborated by Thomas Aquinas. This paper discusses the concept of the agent intellect in the works of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, which is often compared to Thomas’s concept on the basis that it similarly emphasises the immanence of the agent intellect as part of the human soul. Bonaventure, however, by building on the work of his Franciscan predecessors Alexander of Hales and John of la Rochelle, did not formulate an unambiguous concept of the agent intellect. The combination of Aristotelian noetics and Augustinian illumination creates room for the dual concept of the agent intellect, in which the agent intellect is not merely the difference of the human soul with the potential intellect, but it can also be identified with God, who illuminates human reason. However, Bonaventure’s doctrine of the agent intellect is not sufficiently systematic for us to be able to present a definitive interpretation, which also points to the fact that Bonaventure did not consider this issue to be of significant importance.