HENRYK ANZULEWICZ, Albert the Great’s “De intellectu et intelligibili”: A Re-Reading of the Text in Light of its Peripatetic Sources

SUMMARY

In several recent studies, with respect to its sources and development, Albert the Great’s theory of intellect has been treated mainly on the basis of works already available in critical editions. However, Albert’s most important work on the theory of intellect, De intellectu et intelligibili, is not yet available in a critical edition. It is therefore not surprising that there is as yet no adequate account of his theory’s development, sources, and structure. A re-reading of the theory in light of Albert’s complete works affords some interesting insights into those subjects, as well as into other questions regarding its content and form. The following contribution seeks, on the one hand, to illumine the systemic coordinates and doctrinal elaboration of Albert’s theory of intellect in its mature form and, on the other hand, to discuss Albert’s answer to the question of whether the nature of intellect is either superindividual and common to all human beings or particular and individuated. In so doing it seeks to clarify, relative to his earlier and later writings, both what remains constant and what undergoes modification among Albert’s doctrinal perspectives in this work.