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In a recent book, Catarina Belo dealt with Ibn Rušd's and Hegel's doctrines of the relations between philosophy and religion with special insight on knowledge. She contended that both preferred philosophy to religion as the best way to understand reality. In the article, I argue that the real importance of Ibn Rušd's philosophy consists in being a means to reform society in connection with religion (Islam); while Hegel's endorsement of Christianity is ambiguous insofar as the phenomenology of Spirit leads to an Absolute that jeopardizes God's perfection. Finally, I emphasize that Hegel's theory is epistemologically at odds with an Islamic outlook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dominican theologian Albert the Great (ca. 1200-1280) was one of the first to investigate into the system of the world on the basis of an acquaintance with the entire Aristotelian corpus, which he read under the influence of Islamic philosophers. The present study aims to understand the core of Albert's natural philosophy. Albert's emblematic phrase, “every work of nature is the work of intelligence” (omne opus naturae est opus intelligentiae), expresses the conviction that natural things are produced by the intellects that move the celestial bodies, just as houses are made by architects moving their instruments. Albert tried to fathom the secret of generation of natural things with his novel notion of “formative power” (virtus formativa), which flows from the celestial intellects into the sublunary elements. His conception of the natural world represents an alternative to the dominant medieval view on the relationship between the artificial and the natural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is twofold: to examine the argument in response to Socrates' question whether or not reflexive knowledge is, first, possible, and, second, beneficial; and by doing so, to examine the method of Plato's argument. What is distinctive of the method of argument, I want to show, is that Socrates argues on both sides of these questions (the question of possibility and the question of benefit). This, I argue, is why he describes these questions as a source of aporia. Socrates can argue, without contradiction, on both sides of these questions because the arguments against the possibility and benefit of reflexive knowledge are premised on the supposition, defended by Critias, that this knowledge is only of one's knowledge and lack of knowledge, whereas the arguments for its possibility and benefit are not committed to this supposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers some of the material in philosopher Immanuel Kant which are speculated to emphasize on the development of pragmatism. Passages in which Kant uses pragmatic formulations and the term pragmatism itself are offered. Kant believes the concept of a highest intelligence which he calls a mere idea and a heuristic concept.

Discusses the concept of intellectual cognition of material singulars according to French Franciscan theologian Peter Auriol. Question on the acquaintance between the immaterial intellect and material singulars; Origins of the problem of Auriol's thought; Recognition of material singulars by the intellect and imagination.

The origin of matter is one of the last and greatest unsolved mysteries bedevilling modern attempts at understanding the philosophy of the Enneads. There are two stages in the production of Intellect and of soul. The One or Intellect produces an undifferentiated other, which becomes Intellect or soul by itself turning towards and looking towards the prior principle, with no possibility of the One's "turning towards" or "seeing" itself. But where does matter come from? To arrive at his conception of matter, Plotinus has radically altered the definitions of non-being given by Plato and Aristotle in their refutation of Parmenides. Matter, for Plotinus, is a non-being opposed, not to "the being of each thing", as in Plato's Sophist, but to all "the beings properly so-called", i.e. to all the forms. It is then further identified with Aristotle's definition of non-being as privation, with the crucial difference that privation, for Plotinus, is made a permanent substratum of change. This re-formulation of ideas from the Sophist and the Physics proves unmistakably that it is matter which is generated when soul produces a "non-being" which is also a "total lack of definition". The production of matter by soul does not, however, follow the model of the production of Intellect from the One or of soul from Intellect. Since matter is lifeless, it cannot turn towards its source. Soul therefore has to be herself directly responsible both for the production of matter and for the covering of matter with form. Matter is therefore included among the products which stem ultimately from the One. But the origin and the nature of matter have to be understood as very different from the double process of emanation which lies at the origin of Intellect and of soul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents comments on the essay "Plotinus," by L.P. Gerson regarding the philosophy of Plotinus. Overview of the intellectual milieu of the late Roman Empire; Discussion of imputation of scholastic anachronism; Recognition of multiplicity in either the physical world of the Nous.

Analyzes the relationship between moral virtue and wisdom, the good state of practical intelligence under Aristotle's ethical theory. Features of moral virtue; Information on how intellectualists view moral virtue; Interpretation of the relationship by William Fortenbaugh.

Examines the importance of the phantasia or imagination concept to the psychology of Aristotle. Problem of explaining how the content of mental states could ever diverge from what is actually in the world in Aristotle's "De Anima"; Theory of sensation and conception by Aristotle; Role of the phantasia in Aristotle's account of intentionality.

Describes the knowledge and powers of control of the mind included in the assertions concerning the attributes of mind. Notion that the mind control all things that possess soul; Intellectual act of distinguishing or separating one thing from another; Capacity of the mind to separate things by putting the cosmos into motion.

Examines the roles of reason and sense-experience in epistemology and methodology in the "Phaedo," by the philosopher Plato. Argument for recollection in the "Phaedo"; Description of the philosopher's practice of death; Theory of the gradual development of the human mind.