An Episode in Medieval Aristotelianism: Maimonides and St. Thomas on the Active Intellect

AN EPISODE IN MEDIEVAL ARISTOTELIANISM: MAIMONIDES AND ST. THOMAS ON THE ACTIVE INTELLECT IN A PREVIOUS STUDY, I touched indirectly on the influence of Aristotle on the thought of Maimonides and St. Thomas while investigating their speculations on the sacred name YHVH.1 It was suggested that the tetragrammaton can be viewed as marking the boundary between philosophical speculation and belief, reason and revelation. This investigation led to another theme, left unexplored at the time, which has generated a great deal of scholarly concern as well as critical mischief during its lengthy career, that of the Active Intellect. It presents a major difficulty to Aristotle interpretation , a state of affairs passed on with interest to medieval scholarship. The variations on the theme by Maimonides and St. Thomas are valuable not only in themselves but may possibly act as an index reflecting the extent to which Aristotelian elements penetrated into Christian and Jewish thought. I propose to begin with a summary discussion of the De Anima text and pass on to the interpretations of Maimonides and St. Thomas, attempt to draw out pertinent implications, and, if possible, draw out the conclusions which present themselves. Aristotle's De Anima The text of De Anima is manifestly deficient, riddled with corrupt readings, written perhaps in two versions.2 Moreover, the oldest authority for any part of the work consists in references by Alexander, who was followed by the other 'ancient' l " Maimonides and St. Thomas on the Tetragrammaton: The Exodus of Philosophy ", Modern Schoolman, March, 1982, Vol. LIX. 2 Refer to W. David Ross, "The Text of De Anima ", Autour d'Aristote (Louvain : Pub. Univ. de Louvain, 1955), pp. 213-214. 317 318 ROBERT A. HERRARA commentators and paraphrasts, Themistius, Philoponus, Simplicius , and Sophronius, the latter writing some sixteen hundred years after Aristotle.3 Given the corruption of the text, the complexity of the subject matter, and the dearth of complementary explicative texts, it is hardly surprising that vastly different versions of the Active Intellect were elaborated. (Hirschberger cites a codex in the Basle University library that lists no less than 17 different interpretations of the Nous poietikos.) 4 Scholars are still at a loss how to characterize Aristotle's speculations on the Active Intellect. While A. E. Taylor indicates that the presentation of De An.ima. II, 5, is "the most startling of all the inconsistencies between the naturalistic and the spiritualistic strains in Aristotle's philosophy" 5 and Randall considers it a Platonic wild oat come home to roost 6, Sir David Ross can suggest that it is the 'culminating point' of Aristotle's psychology.7 And this is only a representative example of the wide discrepancy which exists between scholars. A close view of the text itself will evidence the difficulties of interpretation. Aristotle initiates De Anima II, 5 by stating that two factors are involved in the whole of nature, in every class of things. He is referring to matter-potentially all the particulars included in the class-and a productive cause. The soul also possesses both a potential element and an actualizing element, the latter being the poietikon (activity) .8 Surprisingly , the Nous poietikos or Active Intellect is not found in the text, but was introduced at a later date by Themistius.9 At any rate, these ' elements ', both the actualizing and the potential, a Ibid., pp. 207-215. 4 Johannes Hirschberger, Historia de la Filosoffa, trans. by L. Martinez Gomez (Barcelona: Herder, 1968), Vol. I, p. 868. s A. E. Taylor, Aristotle (New York: Dover, 1955), p. 86. 6 John Herman Randall, Jr., Aristotle (New- York: Columbia University Press, 1960), p. 102. 1 W. David Ross, Aristotle (New York: Meridian, 1960), pp. 146-149. s De Anima, 430al7. 9 Edmond Barbotin, La Theorie Aristotelicienne de L'lntellect D'A'[n'es Theophraste (Louvain: Pub. Univ. de Louvain, 1954), p. 154, note 8. He cites Themistius , In de Anima, 2, 108; 19-22. THE ACTIVE INTELLECT 319 are to be found in the soul (en te psyche). Theophrastus, Aristotle 's disciple and successor, understood this as indicating the co-existence of the two elements in the individual soul, a position which will later serve as point of departure...