On the Intellect
by Al-Kindi · رسالة في العقل
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- c. 850
- Era
- Medieval
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- Arabic
- Length
- Short · 5 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendClassical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources, translated by Jon McGinnis and David C. ReismanHackett, 2007The anthology Yale assigns; al-Kindi's short treatises sit with al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes in one volume.
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A very short epistle by the first philosopher of the Arabic tradition, explaining the doctrine of the intellect he attributes to Aristotle. Al-Kindi distinguishes four intellects: the intellect always in act, which is the cause of all thinking; the intellect in potency in the soul; the intellect that has passed from potency to act by acquiring intelligible forms; and the intellect that can display those forms at will. It set the terms for the later Arabic and Latin debates over the active intellect.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns On the Intellect are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
