The Language of Divinity: A Philological Analysis of Aristotelian Intellect in De Anima, Metaphysics and Nicomachean Ethics.
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2017-01-23
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en
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How does our intellect function? And how divine is our intellect really? What does it mean to be divine? Does Aristotle literally speak about the divinity of mind, or are those words put in his mouth by later exegetes? Since antiquity these problems, and in particular whether Aristotle’s ‘active intellect’ can be identified with the famous ‘unmoved mover’, have led and still lead to controversy. Recent commentators, however, have not always found it necessary to base their arguments on the Greek itself. Therefore, I approached my research question from a philological point of view, by exploring both the arguments of secondary literature and Aristotle’s arguments as well. When analysing Aristotelian intellect, are there reasonable philological arguments for identifying the active intellect in De Anima Γ.5 with the divine intellect of the unmoved mover of Metaphysics?
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Faculteit der Letteren