Aquinas: The Cogitative Power (vis cogitativa): 2016

Welcome

Any reader of Aquinas will eventually encounter the terms 'internal senses' and 'cogitative power,' as well as 'passive intellect' and 'particular reason.' The primary goal of this website is to facilitate understanding of Aquinas's view of the internal senses in general and the cogitative in particular. With the topic of the cogitative perhaps more than with any other in Thomas’s psychology, one cannot fully understand Aquinas’s assertions without taking into account three philosophers between Aristotle and Aquinas, namely Avicenna, Averroes, and Albert.

This site presents my research, which focuses on (though is not limited to) the accounts of the soul and of the internal senses in these five thinkers.

I will also present links to other relevant sources on the cogitative power that would not come up immediately via a standard search engine.

Secondarily, since I am a philosopher by profession, I will post non-cogitative related philosophical or theological material for any who might be interested.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Bioethics: Craniotomy and material cooperation with evil (non-cogitative related)

This critique of Rhonheimer’s book Vital Conflicts is not related to the cogitative, but may be of interest. For those who don't have access to the published, final draft, here is a link to the final proof.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0CjaoSjGC9iUFQ0dUN0c2syWXc

In a somewhat similar vein, here is an article that addresses a particular case of what I considered to be material cooperation with evil (written in a more popular style).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0CjaoSjGC9iZnI1TlhMcmpjU0E/view?usp=sharing