Nous thurathen: between Theophrastus and Alexander of Aphrodisias

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10495638" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10495638 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=jkL26yLrms" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=jkL26yLrms</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2023.2265970" target="_blank" >10.1080/09608788.2023.2265970</a>

Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Nous thurathen: between Theophrastus and Alexander of Aphrodisias
Original language description
The idea that nous comes from without, deriving from Aristotle's Generation of Animals II.3, became a key element in late ancient and Medieval accounts of human rationality drawing on Aristotle's De Anima. But two very different understandings of the concept were around (often occurring next to each other): either it was taken to refer to the human capacity for thought and its origin outside the natural ontogenetic process; or it was taken to stand for the most perfect act of thought, existing separately as the supreme divinity, and becoming, hopefully, ours at the very climax of human development. This paper shows how these two influential conceptions derive from the work of the two greatest scholars of Aristotle's school, Theophrastus and Alexander of Aphrodisias, respectively. More to the point: it shows that (i) there is an intriguing philosophical story to be told of how the notion developed from one understanding to the other, this being the core of a larger story of nous from without in Western thought; and that (ii) this story sheds new light on what was at stake in the early - genuinely Peripatetic - reception of Aristotle's account of nous (as contrasted with later, heavily Platonized, interpretations).
Czech name
—
Czech description
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Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project
<a href="/en/project/GA22-21829S" target="_blank" >GA22-21829S: Plotinus' notion of life and its Aristotelian background</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

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