Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect

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Aristotle started from the presupposition that human thoughts reflect the external world without distortion, the antithesis of what would be Immanuel Kant's perspective. Aristotle brought to bear a dichotomy pervading his entire philosophy, positing that the various domains of the physical universe disclose both a "matter" and a "cause" or "agent" (ποιητικον) which leads the matter from potentiality to actuality; and he inferred that the same distinction must also be "present in the soul." The intellect that is what it is "by virtue of becoming all things" came to be known as the potential or material intellect, and the intellect that is what it is "by virtue of making all things," as the active intellect (sometimes also translated as active mind, active intelligence, active reason, agent intellect, productive intellect). Alfarabi (d. 950), Avicenna (980-1037), and Averroes (1126-1198) integrate the active intellect and human potential intellect into larger cosmic schemes. In each instance, the physical universe comprises transparent celestial spheres, in which the stars and planets are embedded, and a stationary sublunar world, around which the celestial spheres rotate. A first supreme being consisting in pure thought, and hence an intellect, presides over the entire cosmos; and there follow other beings consisting in pure thought, that is to say, other intellects—or, as they are conventionally termed, intelligences—which have the function of maintaining the celestial spheres in motion. The active intellect, the cause of actual human thought, stands at the end of the chain of supernal intelligences. In Alfarabi, Avicenna, and the early Averroes, the intelligences, including the active intellect, are brought into existence through a series of eternal emanations initiated by the First Cause; and Alfarabi and Avicenna understand that the chain of emanations extends to the celestial spheres and brings them into existence as well. All three philosophers locate the human potential intellect immediately after the active intellect in the descending order of existence.

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