Two Models of Thinking - Fordham University Faculty

produced by my act of thinking is a likeness of my intellectnmade actual bythe intelligible species of cats, which in turn is a likeness of cats:And this [i.e. that a concept is a likeness of the thing thought about]happens because the effect is like its cause in respect of its form, and the formof the intellect is the thing understood. Wherefore the word that originatesfrom the intellect is the likeness of the thing understood […].53Thus, the term of my act of thinking is not an extramental thing, butthe concept produced by my act of thinking. It follows that what I am thinkingabout when I am thinking about what it is to be a cat is primarily the conceptof what it is to be a cat that my intellect forms. Only secondarily is my act ofthinking about the essence of cats. And the reason why my act of thinking is atleast indirectly an act of thinking about what it is to be a cat is that such an actwas triggered by the reception of the form felinity in my intellect. In turn, therelation between the concept produced by my intellect and the extramentalthing it represents is a relation of final causality: the thing is the end at whichmy concept is directed. 54 Aquinas also described the relation between theconcept my intellect forms and the thing it represents as a containmentrelation: the concept is that “in which” (in quo) I understand the extramentalthing. For example, my concept of what it is to be a cat is that “in which” Ithink about what it is to be a cat. Admittedly, it is not easy to make sense ofthis containment relationship. What Aquinas seems to be saying is that I thinkabout what it is to be a cat by thinking about the definitional account I form inmy intellect of what it is to be a cat. 55 As Aquinas also stated, the concept myintellect forms of what it is to be a cat is the tool by which I think about whatit is to be a cat. 5653 De Pot., q. 8, a. 1: “Et hoc ideo contingit, quia effectus similatur causae secundumsuam formam: forma autem intellectus est res intellecta. Et ideo verbum quod oritur ab intellectu,est similitudo rei intellectae.” The English translation is from Thomas Aquinas, On the Power ofGod. Literally Translated by the English Dominican Fathers (Burn Oates & Washbourne LTD.:London, 1932), vol. 3, 71.54 De Pot., q. 9, a. 5: “Hoc ergo est primo et per se intellectum, quod intellectus inseipso concipit de re intellecta.” See also De spir. creat., 9: “Intellectum autem, sive res intellecta,se habet ut constitutum vel formatum per operationem intellectus: sive hoc sit quidditas simplex,sive sit compositio et divisio propositionis.” For the extramental thing as the end at which aconcept is directed, see De Pot. q. 8, a. 1: “ […] et iterum conceptio intellectus ordinatur ad remintellectam sicut ad finem: propter hoc enim intellectus conceptionem rei in se format ut remintellectam cognoscat.”55 Super Evang. Ioan., I, 1: “Istud ergo sic expressum, scilicet formatum in anima,dicitur verbum interius; et ideo comparatur ad intellectum, non sicut quo intellectus intelligit, sedsicut in quo intelligit; quia in ipso expresso et formato videt naturam rei intellectae.”56 Quodl. V, a. 2, ad 1: “Ad primum ergo dicendum quod intellectus intelligit aliquiddupliciter: uno modo formaliter, et sic intelligit specie intelligibili qua fit in actu; alio modo sicut24