«Albertus Magnus and the Emergence of late Medieval Intellectualism»

Abstract

Albertus Magnus was at the head of the late medieval Latin reception of both the near-totality of the esoteric texts of Aristotle and of the Arab thought that accompanied it (the Aristoteles arabus)1, as well as of many Neoplatonic sources that were greatly in uenced by Aristotle’s thought2, and he welcomed all this wealth without prejudice, very likely given his strong demarcation between religion and philosophy. An important feature of this «tradition» was an elaborate re ection on the intellect, the νοῦς, human or divine, forming the theoretical body we today call noetics, and knowledge of Aristotle’s treatise on the soul, the De Anima, and of the Neoplatonic and Arab thought rooting in it, sparked an intense speculation on the nature and role of the human intellect.