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Single Idea 9097

[from 'Summa Theologicae' by Thomas Aquinas, in 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 5. Generalisation by mind ]

Full Idea

Our mind both abstracts the species from images when it attends to the general nature of things, and understand the species in the images when it has recourse to the images in order to understand the things whose species it has abstracted.

Gist of Idea

The mind abstracts generalities from images, but also uses images for understanding

Source

Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], Ch.5 Q85.1)

Book Reference

Aquinas,Thomas: 'Summa Theologicae (Concise)', ed/tr. McDermott,Timothy [Christian Classics 1991], p.134


A Reaction

Geach claims that the second half of this idea means that Aquinas is not an abstractionist, but he seems to be explictly abstractionist about the way in which we create higher level concepts from lower ones.