Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Titel: Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

Stichwort: intellektuelles Licht, light of agent intellect: known per se ipsum; Vergleich: intellektuelles, körperliches Licht

Kurzinhalt: agent intellect: known per se ipsum; soul: does not know its own essence by its own essence; but its own intellectual light by its own intellectual light

Textausschnitt: For Aquinas the term 'intellectual light' is not simply a synonym for the Aristotelian term 'agent intellect.' He debated with the Avicennists whether agent intellect was immanent or transcendent. But he never thought of debating whether intellectual light is immanent or transcendent. Indeed, when he argued that agent intellect was immanent, he was arguing for an identification of agent intellect with the ground of intellectual light. Hence ... Both the nature of agent intellect and, in particular, Aristotle's comparison of agent intellect with light, lead one to identify agent intellect with the immanent cause of "What we call the flash of understanding, the light of reason. What is, then, this lumen animae nostrae?
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Just as corporeal light is seen in seeing any color, so also intelligible light is seen in apprehending any intelligibility. Again, just as corporeal light is seen, not as an object, but in knowing an object, so also intelligible light is seen, not as an object, but 'in ratione medii cognoscendi." Thirdly, intellectual light is a medium not in the sense that it is a known object by means of which another object is known; it is a medium in the sense that it makes other objects knowable. Just as the eye need not see light except insofar as colors are illuminated, so a medium in the given sense need not be known in itself but only in other known objects. Fourthly, with these restrictions we may say that the light of agent intellect is known per se ipsum. The soul does not know its own essence by its own essence; but in some fashion it does know its own intellectual light by its own intellectual light, not indeed to the extent that that light is an object, but inasmuch as that light is the element making species intelligible in act.