Abstract

The distinction between the potential intellect and the active intellect was first drawn by Aristotle. Medieval Islamic, Jewish, Christian philosophers, and European philosophers in the sixteenth century considered it a possible key to deciphering the nature of man and the universe. In this book, Herbert Davidson examines the treatment of intellect in Alfarabi , Avicenna and Averroes , with particular attention to the way in which they addressed the tangle of issues that grew up around the active intellect