From formal Identity to Resemblance in Characterizing Cognition: Aristotle and Late Medieval Philosophy

Authors

  • Julio A. Castello Dubra Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad de Buenos Aires

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48162/rev.35.001

Keywords:

cognition, similitude, Aquinas, Olivi, Ockham

Abstract

The paper deals with three outstanding Late Medieval thinkers’s repeated use of the notion of resemblance in characterizing cognition: Thomas Aquinas, Peter of John Olivi and William of Ockham. In his De anima Aristotle just uses such notion when criticizing the earlier philosophers’s opinions and makes some allusions to it when dealing with sensible perception. When it comes to intellect, resemblance is totally absent. As for Aquinas, he turns from formal identity to resemblance, as if they were coincident or interchangeable concepts. Resemblance plays a major role in his characterization of both sensation and intellection. Olivi adopts a perspective radically different as a consequence of criticizing the theory of species. As there is not any causal influx from abroad, it is the cognitive act itself which assimilates to the object. In changing his mind with respect to his earlier theory of fictum and adopting eventually a theory of mental acts, Ockham does not give up to resemblance in characterizing universal concepts. Rather, he uses resemblance in characterizing such concepts as natural signs.

Author Biography

Julio A. Castello Dubra, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad de Buenos Aires

Julio A. Castelo Dubra es Doctor en Filosofía por la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Profesor Adjunto de la cátedra de Historia de la Filosofía Medival de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la misma Universidad, e investigador adjunto del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas.

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Published

29-06-2021

How to Cite

Castello Dubra, J. A. (2021). From formal Identity to Resemblance in Characterizing Cognition: Aristotle and Late Medieval Philosophy. Scripta Mediaevalia, 14(1), 13–45. https://doi.org/10.48162/rev.35.001

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