Polysemy of the term 'potency' in the Philosophy of Mind of Thomas Aquinas
Abstract
Is it correct to say that there is philosophy of mind in Aquinas’ most mature works? Or is his philosophy of mind just an issue of his early thought, inherited from the Augustinian tradition, and which, after the surfacing of the works of Aristotle, would have stricto sensu shifted into a philosophy of soul? This is the fundamental question that underlies an interesting discussion raised a few years ago among some English-speaking scholars about Thomas Aquinas’ thought. The discussion is picked up here in order to point out a possible way to solve it. This consists on the distinction between three different senses of the term “potency” in Aquinas’ philosophy, which leads to realize that there is no opposition between Augustinism and Aristotelianism in Aquinas.Downloads
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