summa-contra-gentiles

CHAPTER LXII 163
pared. It is therefore contrary to the intention of Aristotle
that the possible intellect should be the same as preparedness.
Again. The agent
is more noble than the patient, and
the maker than the thing made,^ as act in comparison with
potentiality. Now the more immaterial a thing
is the more
noble it is. Therefore the effect cannot be more immaterial
than the cause. But every cognitive power, as such, is
immaterial : hence Aristotle says of sense (2 De Anima)-
that it is receptive of sensible species without matter. Consequently
it is impossible for a cognitive power to result
from a mixture of elements. Now the possible intellect is
the highest cognitive power in us for Aristotle :
says (3 De
Animay that the possible intellect is whereby the soul
knows and widerstands . Therefore the possible intellect is
not caused by the mixture of the elements.
Moreover. If the principle of an operation proceeds
from certain causes, that operation must not surpass those
causes, since the second cause acts by virtue of the first.
Now even the operation of the nutritive soul exceeds the
power of the elemental qualities for Aristotle :
proves (2 De
Animay that fire is not the cause of growth, but its concause
so to speak, while its principal cause is the soul, to
which heat is
compared as the instrument to the craftsman.
Consequently the vegetative soul cannot be produced by
the mixture of the elements, and much less, therefore, the
sense and possible intellect.
Again. To understand is an operation in which no bodily
organ can possibly communicate. Now this operation is
ascribed to the soul, as also to man ;
for we say that the
soul understands or man, by his soul. Consequently there
must needs be in man a principle, independent of the body,
which is the source of that operation. But the preparedness
that results from the mixture of the elements is clearly
dependent on the body. Therefore preparedness is not this
principle. And yet this latter is the possible intellect, since
Aristotle says (3 De Animay that the possible intellect is
^
3 De Aninta v. 2.
* iv. 8. » See above.
- lii. 1.
* iv. i, 3.