Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Philosophical and Theological Papers 1958-1964

Titel: Philosophical and Theological Papers 1958-1964

Stichwort: Intelligibile in actu est intellectus in actu - mobile, motivum, motum, movens
Intelligibile in actu est intellectus in actu

Kurzinhalt: Because of this analysis Aristotle can conclude to what you could never arrive at in a Platonic philosophy: a prime mover that is intelligent

Textausschnitt: 137b Question: The next questioner asked the meaning of the dictum, Intelligibile in actu est intellectus in actu. (Fs)

Response: That's St Thomas and Aristotle. The intelligent in act and the intelligible in act are identical. The intelligible in potency and the intelligent in potency are distinct. The intelligible in potency can be understood, the intelligent in potency can understand. It depends on Aristotle's analysis of action and passion. Aristotle, and St Thomas commenting on the Physics, distinguish the mobile, the motivum, the motum, and the movens; these are the elements distinguished in motus, motion.1 Now is the motion in the mover or in the moved? Are there two motions or only one? Aristotle shows that there is only one and that it is in the moved. Then, in the third book of the De anima (lectio secunda of St Thomas's Commentary), he applies this analysis to sensation. Hearing - your ear - and the bell are distinct; what sounds in potency and what hears in potency are distinct. But the hearing in act and the sounding in act are one and the same. The bell rings in the desert - does it sound? Not in Aristotle's view. There is no sounding act unless there is an ear hearing in act. He applied the same thing to the intellectual order. Intellectus in actu and intelligibile in actu are identical, but in potency they are distinct. Because of this analysis Aristotle can conclude to what you could never arrive at in a Platonic philosophy: a prime mover that is intelligent. Aristotle's prime mover is not an object but an identity of subject and object. In his quae sunt sine materia idem est intelligens et intellectum.2 Now that is a basic analysis of knowledge, but it doesn't deal with die problem of objectivity. Analysis of the judgment has to be added. (Fs) (notabene)