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Document Details :

Title: Averroès et l'intellect matériel diaphane
Subtitle: Remarques sur une analogie variable
Author(s): BRENET, Jean-Baptiste
Journal: Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales
Volume: 85    Issue: 2   Date: 2018   
Pages: 261-284
DOI: 10.2143/RTPM.85.2.3285391

Abstract :
This paper studies the analogy set forth by Averroes in his Great Commentary on the De anima between the material intellect and the transparent medium. The overall context of the present inquiry is the 'question of Theophrastus' concerning the nature of the material intellect. The paper argues that the analogy between material intellect and transparent medium arises because, just like the transparent medium, the material intellect’s functioning requires a prior actualization: just as colors shine through the transparent medium only insofar as it is itself actually illuminated, the material intellect can receive intelligible forms only insofar as it is fundamentally actualized by the agent intellect. The aim of this paper is thus to reconsider the nature of the material intellect’s potency and its formal relation to the agent intellect.

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