Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 1/2009:52-61 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2009.005

Antiaverroism in the works of Thomas Aquinas

Jozef Matula

The article deals with the relation of Thomas Aquinas to the problem of one intellect in the thought of the Arabic thinker Averroes. The first part pays attention to selected aspects of Aquinas' criticism of the theory that proclaims the existence of one collective soul and one common intellect. On the background of the epistemological questions, which concern the theory of species intelligibilis, phantasms, the theory of coniunctio, or the intelligibility of separated substances, the author tries to elucidate Aquinas' arguments against not only Averroes but also other thinkers (Themistius, Theofrastus, Avicenna, Avempace). In the second part of the article the author points out the fact that when examining the relation of Aquinas to Averroes it is necessary to consider not only epistemological arguments but also his moral and political motives. Breaking of the rules of moral philosophy or even destruction of moral philosophy and social political life are a logical consequence of Averroes' epistemological attitudes. The author also mentions the development of Aquinas' relation to Averroes. In his early works (Commentum in II Sententiarum) Aquinas does not observe any consequences of Averroes' teaching while in the later works ( Summa contra Gentiles, De unitate intellectus) he highlights the moral implications of Averroes' interpretation of Aristotle.

Published: March 30, 2009  Show citation

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Matula, J. (2009). Antiaverroism in the works of Thomas Aquinas. Aither, 1(1), 52-61. doi: 10.5507/aither.2009.005
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