Species intelligibilis : : from perception to knowledge / / Volume 1: : Classical Roots and Medieval Discussions. / by Leen Spruit.

• Superior document: Brill's studies in intellectual history, v. 48-49
• Author: Spruit, Leen, 1954-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, New York : : Brill,, 1994-1995.
• Year of Publication: 1994
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History 48.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (463 pages)

This study examines the history of a fundamental problem in Aristotelian cognitive psychology, id est the nature and function of the mechanisms that provide the human mind with data concerning physical reality. Chapter I traces the Classical and Arabic prehistory of the Medieval doctrine of intelligible species. Scholastic discussions on formal mediation in intellective cognition were constrained in essential ways by Thomas. Chapter II analyzes his views on mental representation in the context of the reception of Peripatetic psychology in the West. The following chapters (III-V) examine the controversies about the necessity of intelligible species, from Aquinas' death to the 15th century. Another volume is planned, devoted to Renaissance discussions, developments of later Scholasticism, and the elimination of the intelligible species in modern non-Aristotelian philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Chapter One: Origins Of The Species Intelligibilis In Ancient And Medieval Thought -- Chapter Two: From The Spread Of Arabic And Aristotelian Psychology To Thomas Aquinas -- Chapter Three: Species Intelligibius: Genesis Of A Philosophical Controversy -- Chapter Four: Fourteenth-Century Developments -- Chapter Five: Late Medieval Discussions -- Bibliography -- Index Personarum.