Concept

Averroes's theory of the unity of the intellect

Overview

philosophical theory proposed by Averroes that all humans share the same intellect

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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1. Obj. 2: Further, the active intellect is the cause of the universal, which is one in many. But that which is the cause of unity is still more itself one. Therefore the active intellect is the same in all.

   Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I

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2. The many exist only as objects for his thought--exist in his dream, as it were; and AS HE KNOWS them, they have one purpose, form one system, tell one tale for him. This notion of an ALL-ENVELOPING NOETIC UNITY in things is the sublimest achievement of intellectualist philosophy. Those who believe in the Absolute, as the all-knower is termed, usually say that they do so for coercive reasons, which clear thinkers…

   William James, Pragmatism

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3. The other reason is, that no effect is greater than the cause, because the cause cannot give that which it has not; wherefore, since the Divine Intellect is the cause of all, especially of the Human Intellect, it follows that the Human Intellect does not dominate the Divine, but is dominated by it in proportion to the superior power of the Divine. Hence, if we, by the reason above stated, and by many others…

   Dante Alighieri, The Banquet

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Philosophers who discussed Averroes's theory of the unity of the intellect

• Averroes

Related ideas

• Condemnations of 1210–1277
• Avicenna
• On the Soul
• Al-Farabi
• Latin
• Materialism
• Averroism
• Siger of Brabant
• Oneworld Publications
• Thomas Aquinas
• Secularism
• Aristotle
• Aristotelianism
• Universalism
• Al-Andalus
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Nous
• Intellect
• Plotinus
• Scholasticism
• Averroes
• Oxford University Press
• Avempace
• Catholic Church

Place in the tradition

Part of Averroism.

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