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In the Aristotelian scheme, nous is the basic understanding or awareness that allows human beings to think rationally. For Aristotle, this was distinct from the processing of sensory perception, including the use of imagination and memory, which other animals can do.
Nous, in philosophy, the faculty of intellectual apprehension and of intuitive thought. Used in a narrower sense, it is distinguished from discursive thought and applies to the apprehension of eternal intelligible substances and first principles.
While Plato emphasizes nous as an abstract realm of ideal forms, Aristotle grounds it in empirical reality through his notion of active intellect. This blending creates a richer view where nous becomes essential in linking abstract principles with concrete existence.
In Plato nous is the quality enabling one to apprehend the forms. Aristotle distinguished between nous pathetikos (passive reason) and the higher nous, the immortal aspect of the soul, related to nous pathetikos as form is to matter.
Aristotle later developed the idea of nous as an active intellect, distinguishing between potential and actual knowledge. The Neoplatonists further expanded on nous, viewing it as a divine intellect that contemplates itself and emanates all creation.
Nous plays a crucial role in the writings of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, who explore its relationship with knowledge and existence. In Stoicism, the concept of nous is essential for understanding how reason aligns with nature and human behavior.
25 wrz 2008 · This final intellectual state Aristotle characterizes as a kind of unmediated intellectual apprehension (nous) of first principles (APo. 100a10–b6). Scholars have understandably queried what seems a casually asserted passage from the contingent, given in sense experience, to the necessary, as required for the first principles of science.
