The aristotelian-thomistic noûs

Abstract

My intention with this article is to draw a general line on the idea of noûs in Aristotle, its adoption and development by Saint Thomas Aquinas, taking the shape which arrived at us, as intellect or intelligence, “way of knowing” that captures the universal. I present firstly the “ways of knowing” thought by Aristotle in his main works, reaching on the idea of noûs, as the proper way of the philosophical knowledge at its search for the being of things. Following that I describe the retaking of this concept by Saint Thomas Aquinas, as intellect, and its development during the controversy against the averroists. My intention is, besides demonstrating the thought of those philosophers on this subject, show it as an extremely relevant subject for the philosophical thought still.