Aristotle and Plotinus on the Intellect Monism and Dualism Revisited

by Nyvlt, Mark J.

• ISBN13: 9780739167755
• ISBN10: 0739167758
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-11-17
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

This book emphasizes that Aristotle was aware of the philosophical attempt to subordinate divine Intellect (nou:V) to a prior and absolute principle. Nyvlt argues that Aristotle transforms the Platonic doctrine of Ideal Numbers into an astronomical account of the unmoved movers, which function as the multiple intelligible content of divine Intellect. Thus, within Aristotle we have in germ the Plotinian doctrine that the intelligibles are within the Intellect. While the content of divine Intellect is multiple, it does not imply that divine Intellect possesses a degree of potentiality, given that potentiality entails otherness and contraries. Rather, the very content of divine Intellect is itself; it is Thought Thinking Itself (?s? ?se? ?s?). The pure activity of divine Intellect, moreover, allows for divine Intellect to know the world, and the acquisition of this knowledge does not infect divine Intellect with potentiality. The status of the intelligible object(s) within divine Intellect is pure activity that is identical with divine Intellect itself, as T. De Koninck and H. Seidl have argued. Therefore, the intelligible objects within divine Intellect are not separate entities that determine divine Intellect, as is the case in Plotinus.

Author Biography

Mark J. Nyvlt is assistant professor and vice dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Dominican University College, Ottawa.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Aristotle on the Platonic Two-Principles Doctrine: The One and the Indefinite Dyad	p. 11
Aristotle and Speusippus	p. 39
Aristotelian Henology	p. 57
The Anatomy of Aristotle's Metaphysics	p. 73
The Unmoved Mover and the Simplicity and Priority of $$$: Metaphysics ¿ 7, De Anima III.4-5, and Metaphysics ¿ 9	p. 97
The 'E¿i¿¿¿oon' of the One and the Derivation of $$$	p. 131
Plotinus on Phantasia: Phantasia as the Home of Self-Consciousness within the Soul	p. 165
Alcinous and Alexander on the Intelligibles within $$$	p. 187
Plotinus on the Simplicity of $$$: An Appropriation and Critique of Aristotle's Noetic Doctrine	p. 215
Conclusion	p. 233
Bibliography	p. 241
Index	p. 259
About the Author	p. 263
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