An Analysis of Intelligible Species in the Doctrine of Knowledge in a Manuscript Attributed to Antonius Andreas.

摘要

Intelligible species were enshrined in the cognitive theories of medieval thinkers as part of the narrative which explained the genesis of an act of understanding. However these thinkers did not all regard intelligible species in the same way. While some, like St. Thomas Aquinas, stressed the need for these species to serve as the means to an act of understanding, others such as Henry of Ghent rejected the need for them on those grounds.;This historical setting serves as the backdrop of the dissertation which is a commentary of Aristotle's De Anima which is attributed to Antonius Andreas; the commentary, we are told, was copied in the early part of the fall semester in 1448 at the University of Prague by the scribe who copied it, Hilary of Lithonicum. Antonius Andreas was a Franciscan friar from the Kingdom of Aragon who studied at the University of Paris at the same time that Blessed John Duns Scotus was teaching there. The influence of the Doctor Subtilis on Antonius is manifest primarily in his own commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics in which he espouses Scotus's signature teaching on common nature and haecceitas..;Antonius Andreas discusses the role of intelligible species in cognition in this commentary and in his Scriptum Artem Veterem Aristotelis. The anonymous author also discusses the role of intelligible species in his commentary on the De Anima. The main focus of this dissertation is to examine whether the doctrine of intelligible species of the anonymous author is consistent with the doctrine Antonius Andreas. In the background of this discussion is how faithful both Antonius Andreas and this anonymous author are to the doctrine of Duns Scotus, and whether the appellation of Scotellus correctly belongs to Antonius Andreas as well as to this anonymous author.