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Objection 1: It would seem that the intelligence is another power
than the intellect. For we read in De Spiritu et Anima that "when
we wish to rise from lower to higher things, first the sense comes to
our aid, then imagination, then reason, then intellect, and
afterwards intelligence." But imagination and sense are distinct
powers. Therefore also intellect and intelligence are distinct.
Objection 2: Further, Boethius says (De Consol. v, 4) that
"sense considers man in one way, imagination in another, reason in
another, intelligence in another." But intellect is the same power
as reason. Therefore, seemingly, intelligence is a distinct power
from intellect, as reason is a distinct power from imagination or
sense.
Objection 3: Further, "actions came before powers," as the
Philosopher says (De Anima ii, 4). But intelligence is an act
separate from others attributed to the intellect. For Damascene says
(De Fide Orth. ii) that "the first movement is called
intelligence; but that intelligence which is about a certain thing is
called intention; that which remains and conforms the soul to that
which is understood is called invention, and invention when it remains
in the same man, examining and judging of itself, is called phronesis
[that is, wisdom], and phronesis if dilated makes thought, that
is, orderly internal speech; from which, they say, comes speech
expressed by the tongue." Therefore it seems that intelligence is
some special power.
On the contrary, The Philosopher says (De Anima iii, 6) that
"intelligence is of indivisible things in which there is nothing
false." But the knowledge of these things belongs to the intellect.
Therefore intelligence is not another power than the intellect.
I answer that, This word "intelligence" properly signifies the
intellect's very act, which is to understand. However, in some
works translated from the Arabic, the separate substances which we
call angels are called "intelligences," and perhaps for this reason,
that such substances are always actually understanding. But in works
translated from the Greek, they are called "intellects" or
"minds." Thus intelligence is not distinct from intellect, as power
is from power; but as act is from power. And such a division is
recognized even by the philosophers. For sometimes they assign four
intellects---namely, the "active" and "passive" intellects, the
intellect "in habit," and the "actual" intellect. Of which four
the active and passive intellects are different powers; just as in all
things the active power is distinct from the passive. But three of
these are distinct, as three states of the passive intellect, which is
sometimes in potentiality only, and thus it is called passive;
sometimes it is in the first act, which is knowledge, and thus it is
called intellect in habit; and sometimes it is in the second act,
which is to consider, and thus it is called intellect in act, or
actual intellect.
Reply to Objection 1: If this authority is accepted, intelligence
there means the act of the intellect. And thus it is divided against
intellect as act against power.
Reply to Objection 2: Boethius takes intelligence as meaning that
act of the intellect which transcends the act of the reason. Wherefore
he also says that reason alone belongs to the human race, as
intelligence alone belongs to God, for it belongs to God to
understand all things without any investigation.
Reply to Objection 3: All those acts which Damascene enumerates
belong to one power---namely, the intellectual power. For this
power first of all only apprehends something; and this act is called
"intelligence." Secondly, it directs what it apprehends to the
knowledge of something else, or to some operation; and this is called
"intention." And when it goes on in search of what it "intends,"
it is called "invention." When, by reference to something known for
certain, it examines what it has found, it is said to know or to be
wise, which belongs to "phronesis" or "wisdom"; for "it belongs
to the wise man to judge," as the Philosopher says (Metaph. i,
2). And when once it has obtained something for certain, as being
fully examined, it thinks about the means of making it known to
others; and this is the ordering of "interior speech," from which
proceeds "external speech." For every difference of acts does not
make the powers vary, but only what cannot be reduced to the one same
principle, as we have said above (Question 78, Article 4).
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