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The problem of Aristotle's nous poietikos.(Critical Essay)

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From: The Review of Metaphysics
Date: 20040601
Author:White, Michael J.

DESPITE THE WELL-KNOWN historical significance of Aristotle's doctrine of the productive or active intellect (the nous poietikos or intellectus agens) it is not unusual to find contemporary discussions treating the doctrine as an excrescence on the text of the De anima, a work, it is frequently nowadays supposed, in which an otherwise securely naturalistic epistemology and rational psychology are developed. Although the doctrine of the intellectus agens is found only in one place in Aristotle's extant texts, the third book of the De anima, I shall nonetheless maintain that an ...

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