Aquinas Against the Averroists: On There Being Only One Intellect

Part 1. Introduction

PAR o N ~ IIntroduction Thomas Aquinas's polemical work On There Being Only One Intellect was written in Paris in 1270 and may be said to concern the correct reading of Aristotle. Aristotle and Paris are, respectively, continuous and recurrent factors in the life of Thomas Aquinas (1225-74). Thomas was convinced ofthe complementarity ofAristotelian philosophy and his Christian faith. How could truths revealed by God conflict with the truths gained by our God-given intellect? The philosophy ofAristotle enabled Thomas to fashion an understanding of the human person that departed in significant ways from the Augustinian view that had dominated Christian thought into the thirteenth century. Thomas, though still a comparatively young man, did not have long to live when he wrote the short work that is the focus ofthis study. In it, he takes issue with Averroes's reading ofAristotle, which, Thomas argues, is without textual support and makes Aristotle the foe of, rather than a complement and prelude to, Christianity. Thomas's deepest convictions about the value of Aristotle for understanding human nature and destiny come into play in this work. This explains the sharpness with which he opposes what Fernand Van Steenberghen wishes us to call heterodox Aristotelianism, more commonly referred to as Latin Averroism. I Biographical Sketch Thomas spent three years at the Dominican convent of Santa Sabina in Rome before returning to Paris in 1269. During this time (1265-68), he purportedly conducted a "personal studium" where he was in charge ofthe instruction ofyoung members of his order. It was then that he began the Summa theologiae.1 Also near the end of I 1 21PARTONE this period, he commented on Aristotle's De anima, the first of a dozen such commentaries that he would write over the next five years. This Aristotelian work contains passages that triggered the controversy in Paris between masters ofthe faculty ofarts and theologians , a controversy that broadened to include the general question ofthe compatibility of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian faith. Nonetheless, Thomas's commentary on the De anima has been called serene in comparison with the polemical work he wrote in Paris in 1270, On There Being Only One Intellect, against the Averroists. Rene Gauthier observed that Thomas's conviction as to the value ofAristotelian doctrine, in itselfand for theology, was both doctrinal and personal.2 It is not surprising that he reacted to what he considered distortions ofAristotle with a vigor verging on anger. Thomas Aquinas was born in Roccasecca into a noble family often allied with the emperor against the forces ofthe pope. In 1231, at the age of five, Thomas was presented as an oblate at the great Benedictine abbey ofMontecassino, not far from Roccasecca. There he received his first education, the rudiments oflearning. When war once more engulfed the monastery in 1239, Thomas was sent to the University of Naples at the age ofthirteen; he was slightly younger than others beginning the study of the arts. Among his teachers were Brother Martin, ofwhom we know little, and Peter ofIreland.3 Naples was a center ofAristotelianism thanks to translations from the Arabic; therefore, Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes were familiarto him. Also in Naples, Thomas met members ofthe Order of Preachers , founded by Dominic in 1215. Dominicans were associated with universities from the beginning, their pastoral task requiring, Dominic felt, profound intellectual training. In 1242 or 1243, Thomas became a Dominican, much to the chagrin ofhis family, who tried to persuade him to leave. Thomas's superiors sent him to Rome as a protective measure. This may have been his first stay at the Dominican convent ofSanta Sabina. His mother, Theodora, apparently followed him to Rome and enlisted the help ofthe recently elected Innocent IV. Ecclesiastical honors were dangled before the young friar but without effect. The master ofthe order decided to send Thomas to Paris, but the family intervened, taking Thomas into custody. They put him in a family castle at Montesangiovanni, near Frosinone, where his mother urged him to leave the Dominicans . Thomas was held captive by his family from 1244 to 1245 or 1246. During this period, he read the entire Bible, may have read Peter Lombard's Sentences, and taught his young cousins. Except for the last activity, perhaps, it would not have been in every way a punitive sojourn. Finally, Thomas's brothers sought to weaken his 3 I Introduction resolve by sending a woman to him, but the...