Averroes’s Unity Argument Against Multiple Intellects

Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 103 (3):429-454 (2021)
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Abstract

Averroes is well-known for his controversial thesis that there is only one separate intellect for all humankind. This article provides a detailed analysis of Averroes’s Unity Argument from his Long Commentary on De Anima, which argues from unified intelligible concepts to a single transcendent intellect. I set out the Unity Argument in its textual and philosophical context, explain exactly how the argument works on a new interpretation of its infinite regress, and offer some brief suggestions as to how it might be further evaluated in light of alternative ancient and medieval theories. Ultimately, I demonstrate that the Unity Argument is Averroes’s most important philosophical argument for his distinctive view of intellect.

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Stephen Ogden
University of Notre Dame

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References found in this work

Summa Theologiae (1265-1273).Thomas Aquinas - 1911 - Edited by Fathers of the English Dominican Province.
Summa Contra Gentiles.Thomas Aquinas - 1975 - University of Notre Dame Press.
Avicenna.Jon McGinnis - 2010 - New York: Oxford University Press.
De Ente Et Essentia.Thomas Aquinas - 1965 - Lublin: CreateSpace. Edited by O. P. Kenny & Joseph.

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