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7 - Intelligibility

from Part III - Proposals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

Sean Kelsey
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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Summary

Aristotle maintains that defining "intelligence" (nous) requires first defining its activity, “understanding” or “insight” (noēsis) which requires first having considered its objects, intelligible beings (noēta). This chapter is about the nature of these objects: what about them makes them intelligible? My principal proposals are that what makes them intelligible is that they are "separate" and "unmixed," and that because, insofar as they are intelligible, they are, in their essence, "activity."’ I am aware this makes it sound as though Aristotle takes intelligibility to consist in some kind of intelligence. But in fact this is a result he is committed to, by the doctrines that intelligence is intelligible and that there is something that intelligible objects "all are in common"; for the alternative, as he himself says, is to suppose that intelligence "will have something mixed-in, which makes it intelligible just like the rest." The challenge, then, is not to steer clear of this result, but to make sense of it. My proposal is that the key to this lies in realizing that and why Aristotle thinks of intelligibility as a creature of intelligence.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Intelligibility
  • Sean Kelsey, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: Mind and World in Aristotle's <i>De Anima</i>
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108966375.008
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  • Intelligibility
  • Sean Kelsey, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: Mind and World in Aristotle's <i>De Anima</i>
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108966375.008
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Intelligibility
  • Sean Kelsey, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: Mind and World in Aristotle's <i>De Anima</i>
  • Online publication: 16 December 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108966375.008
Available formats
×