HKB
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Often appears with: reason and the intellect · universal reason · unity and universals · the nature and attributes of God · providence and divine governance · phantasms · participation in higher intellect · one active intellect vs many · nature and destiny · justice as a virtue · interpersonal duty · fate, destiny, and necessity
Usually: argument (2) · reflection (1) · detachment (1) · exhortation (1) · reverence (1) · wonder (1)
“For what is such by participation, and what is mobile, and what is imperfect always requires the pre-existence of something essentially such, immovable and perfect.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) · insight
Marcus Aurelius portrays nature’s distribution as orderly, says nothing in the universe can happen “against nature,” compares universal understanding to light, and teaches humans to teach or bear with one another.
if this cannot be done.--Take thy departure then from life contentedly, just as he dies who is in full activity, and well pleased too with the things which are obstacles. 48. Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, when self-collected it is satisfied with itself, if it does nothing which it does not choose to do, even if it resist from mere obstinacy. What then will it be when it forms a judgment about anyth…
He argues the active intellect is something in the soul: the human soul receives intellectual light from a higher intellect (ultimately God), which enables abstraction from phantasms.
every nature, so in the soul is there something by which it becomes all things, and something by which it makes all things." Therefore we must admit an active intellect. *I answer that,* According to the opinion of Plato, there is no need for an active intellect in order to make things actually intelligible; but perhaps in order to provide intellectual light to the intellect, as will be explained farther on (A. 4). …
Aquinas concludes there is not one active intellect for all humans; if it is a power in each soul, then each person has a distinct active intellect, likened to light that differs across subjects.
than the soul: according to John 1:9, "He was the true light that enlighteneth every man coming into this world." Therefore the active intellect is not something in the soul. Obj. 2: Further, the Philosopher (De Anima iii, 5) says of the active intellect, "that it does not sometimes understand and sometimes not understand." But our soul does not always understand: sometimes it understands, sometimes it does not unde…