Whether the Intelligible Species Abstracted from the Phantasm Is
Related to Our Intellect As That Which Is Understood?
Objection 1: It would seem that the intelligible species abstracted
from the phantasm is related to our intellect as that which is
understood. For the understood in act is in the one who understands:
since the understood in act is the intellect itself in act. But
nothing of what is understood is in the intellect actually
understanding, save the abstracted intelligible species. Therefore
this species is what is actually understood.
Obj. 2: Further, what is actually understood must be in something;
else it would be nothing. But it is not in something outside the
soul: for, since what is outside the soul is material, nothing
therein can be actually understood. Therefore what is actually
understood is in the intellect. Consequently it can be nothing else
than the aforesaid intelligible species.
Obj. 3: Further, the Philosopher says (1 Peri Herm. i) that "words
are signs of the passions in the soul." But words signify the things
understood, for we express by word what we understand. Therefore
these passions of the soul--viz. the intelligible species, are what
is actually understood.
_On the contrary,_ The intelligible species is to the intellect what
the sensible image is to the sense. But the sensible image is not
what is perceived, but rather that by which sense perceives.
Therefore the intelligible species is not what is actually
understood, but that by which the intellect understands.
_I answer that,_ Some have asserted that our intellectual faculties
know only the impression made on them; as, for example, that sense is
cognizant only of the impression made on its own organ. According to
this theory, the intellect understands only its own impression,
namely, the intelligible species which it has received, so that this
species is what is understood.
This is, however, manifestly false for two reasons. First, because
the things we understand are the objects of science; therefore if
what we understand is merely the intelligible species in the soul, it
would follow that every science would not be concerned with objects
outside the soul, but only with the intelligible species within the
soul; thus, according to the teaching of the Platonists all science
is about ideas, which they held to be actually understood [*Q. 84, A.
1]]. Secondly, it is untrue, because it would lead to the opinion of
the ancients who maintained that "whatever seems, is true"
[*Aristotle, _Metaph._ iii. 5, and that consequently contradictories
are true simultaneously. For if the faculty knows its own impression
only, it can judge of that only. Now a thing seems according to the
impression made on the cognitive faculty. Consequently the cognitive
faculty will always judge of its own impression as such; and so every
judgment will be true: for instance, if taste perceived only its own
impression, when anyone with a healthy taste perceives that honey is
sweet, he would judge truly; and if anyone with a corrupt taste
perceives that honey is bitter, this would be equally true; for each
would judge according to the impression on his taste. Thus every
opinion would be equally true; in fact, every sort of apprehension.
Therefore it must be said that the intelligible species is related to
the intellect as that by which it understands: which is proved thus.
There is a twofold action (Metaph. ix, Did. viii, 8), one which
remains in the agent; for instance, to see and to understand; and
another which passes into an external object; for instance, to heat
and to cut; and each of these actions proceeds in virtue of some
form. And as the form from which proceeds an act tending to something
external is the likeness of the object of the action, as heat in the
heater is a likeness of the thing heated; so the form from which
proceeds an action remaining in the agent is the likeness of the
object. Hence that by which the sight sees is the likeness of the
visible thing; and the likeness of the thing understood, that is, the
intelligible species, is the form by which the intellect understands.
But since the intellect reflects upon itself, by such reflection it
understands both its own act of intelligence, and the species by
which it understands. Thus the intelligible species is that which is
understood secondarily; but that which is primarily understood is the
object, of which the species is the likeness. This also appears from
the opinion of the ancient philosophers, who said that "like is known
by like." For they said that the soul knows the earth outside itself,
by the earth within itself; and so of the rest. If, therefore, we
take the species of the earth instead of the earth, according to
Aristotle (De Anima iii, 8), who says "that a stone is not in the
soul, but only the likeness of the stone"; it follows that the soul
knows external things by means of its intelligible species.
Reply Obj. 1: The thing understood is in the intellect by its own
likeness; and it is in this sense that we say that the thing actually
understood is the intellect in act, because the likeness of the thing
understood is the form of the intellect, as the likeness of a
sensible thing is the form of the sense in act. Hence it does not
follow that the intelligible species abstracted is what is actually
understood; but rather that it is the likeness thereof.
Reply Obj. 2: In these words "the thing actually understood" there
is a double implication--the thing which is understood, and the fact
that it is understood. In like manner the words "abstract universal"
imply two things, the nature of a thing and its abstraction or
universality. Therefore the nature itself to which it occurs to be
understood, abstracted or considered as universal is only in
individuals; but that it is understood, abstracted or considered as
universal is in the intellect. We see something similar to this is in
the senses. For the sight sees the color of the apple apart from its
smell. If therefore it be asked where is the color which is seen
apart from the smell, it is quite clear that the color which is seen
is only in the apple: but that it be perceived apart from the smell,
this is owing to the sight, forasmuch as the faculty of sight
receives the likeness of color and not of smell. In like manner
humanity understood is only in this or that man; but that humanity be
apprehended without conditions of individuality, that is, that it be
abstracted and consequently considered as universal, occurs to
humanity inasmuch as it is brought under the consideration of the
intellect, in which there is a likeness of the specific nature, but
not of the principles of individuality.
Reply Obj. 3: There are two operations in the sensitive part. One, in
regard of impression only, and thus the operation of the senses takes
place by the senses being impressed by the sensible. The other is
formation, inasmuch as the imagination forms for itself an image of
an absent thing, or even of something never seen. Both of these
operations are found in the intellect. For in the first place there
is the passion of the passive intellect as informed by the
intelligible species; and then the passive intellect thus informed
forms a definition, or a division, or a composition, expressed by a
word. Wherefore the concept conveyed by a word is its definition; and
a proposition conveys the intellect's division or composition. Words
do not therefore signify the intelligible species themselves; but
that which the intellect forms for itself for the purpose of judging
of external things.
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