Agent Intellect and Divine Illumination in Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae
Main Article Content
Abstract
The theory of knowledge of Thomas Aquinas is strongly influenced by the Aristotelian theory of abstraction and the agent intellect. Along with this theory, Thomas Aquinas also assimilates the Augustinian doctrine of divine illumination. In our paper, we show how Aquinas articulates these two theories, that of the agent intellect and that of divine illumination, in his Summa Theologiae. The agent intellect is the internal formal and efficient principle of human knowledge, but God is also the efficient, exemplary and final cause of human knowledge, inasmuch as He creates the human soul with its innate light, moves it to its operation, regulates it with the Eternal Reasons, and is in whom happiness is all about. In Saint Thomas, the affirmation of the metaphysical consistency of the second causes is not to the detriment of the power of the first Cause, but on the contrary. The causation of its own science by the created intellect, second cause, and the causation of it by God, First Cause, are strongly related and require each other.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Publications Service of the University of Extremadura (the publishing house) retains the economic rights (copyright) of the works published in the Anuario de la Facultad de Derecho. Universidad de Extremadura.. The reuse of the content is allowed under a license:
CC BY
Recognition
This license allows others to distribute, remix, tweak and build upon your work, even for commercial purposes, as long as you are acknowledged as the author of the original creation. This is the most helpful license offered. The maximum dissemination and use of the materials subject to the license are recommended.
For more information, see the following links:
References
Allers, Rudolf. “Saint Augustin’s Doctrine on Illumination”, Franciscan Studies, 12, no. 1 (1952): 27-46.
Andereggen, Ignacio E. M. La metafísica de Santo Tomás en la Exposición sobre el De divinis nominibus de Dionisio Areopagita. Buenos Aires: EDUCA, 1989.
Boyer, Charles. L'idée de vérité dans la philosphie de Saint Augustin. Paris: Beauchesne, 1920.
Canals Vidal, Francisco. “El lumen intellectus agentis en la ontología del conocimiento de Santo Tomás.” Convivium 1 (1956): 100-136.
Caturelli, Alberto. “La doctrina agustiniana sobre el Maestro y su desarrollo en santo Tomás de Aquino.” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 11, no. 2 (1955): 210-210.
Cayré, Fulbert. Initiation a la philosophie de Saint Augustin. Paris: Études augustinennes, 1947.
Cuddeback, Matthew C. “Light and Form in St. Thomas Aquinas’s Metaphysics of the Knower.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 1998.
Doolan, Gregory T. Aquinas on the Divine Ideas as Exemplar Causes. Washington D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008.
Echavarría, Martín F. “El modo de subsitir personal como reflexión sustancial según Tomás de Aquino.” Espíritu 62, no. 146 (2013): 277-310.
Fabro, Cornelio. Introduzione a San Tommaso. La metafísica tomista e il pensiero moderno. Milano: Ares, 1983.
Gilson, Étienne. Pourquoi saint Thomas a critiqué saint Augustin. Paris: J. Vrin, 1926.
Gilson, Étienne. Introduction a l’étude de saint Augustin. Paris: J. Vrin, 1949.
Hankey, Wayne J. “Participatio divini luminis, Aquinas’ doctrine of the Agent Intellect: Our Capacity for Contemplation.” Dionysius 22 (2004): 149-78.
Jolivet, Régis. Dieu soleil des esprits: La doctrine augustinienne de l’illumination. París: Desclée de Brouwer, 1934.
Jordan, Mark D. “The Intelligibility of the World and the Divine Ideas in Aquinas.” The Review of Metaphysics 38, no. 1 (1984), 17-32.
Lázaro Pulido, Manuel. “Aportación de San Buenaventura a una ‘Filosofía medieval de la mente’. Reflexiones desde la lectura del itinerarium Mentis in Deum.” Naturaleza y gracia: revista cuatrimestral de ciencias eclesiásticas, 3 (2010): 499-534.
Nejeschleba, Tomáš. “Thomas Aquinas and the Early Franciscan School on the Agent Intellect.” Verbum 6, no. 1 (April 2004): 67-78.
Nejeschleba, Tomáš. “Bonaventure on the Agent Intellect.” Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica 4 (2017): 811-821.
O’Rourke, Fran. Pseudo-Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas. Notre Dame, Indiana: Notre Dame University Press.Pegueroles, Joan. “La Formación o Iluminación en la Metafísica de San Agustín.” Espíritu 20, no. 64 (1971): 134-149.
Sellés Dauder, Juan Fernando. “El intelecto agente en algunos maestros franciscanos del s. XVII: Rafael Aversa, Juan Lalemandet, Guillermo van Sichen, Buenaventura Columbo, Bartolomé de Barberis y Wolter Schopen.” Cauriensia 12 (2017): 661-684.
Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica. New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1947.
Thomas Aquinas. On Spiritual Creatures (De Spiritualibus Creaturis). Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1949.
Valdivia Fuenzalida, José Antonio. "Nécessité, certitude et illumination selon saint Bonaventure." Laval théologique et philosophique 73, no. 2 (2017): 229–254.
White, John R. “The Illumination of Bonaventure. Divine light in theology, philosophy and history according to Bonaventure.” Fides quaerens intellectum 1, no. 2 (2001): 201-223.