Aquinas holds that the intellect operates exclusively on abstracted intelligible species, leaving all direct contact with existing singulars to the sensitive powers and the cogitative faculty.

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Aquinas: Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian priest and philosopher (1225-1274) who became one of the most influential thinkers in Western history. He attempted to show that Christian faith and human reason are compatible, arguing that we can use logic and observation to understand God and the natural world. His ideas deeply shaped Catholic theology and continue to influence how religious and secular institutions think about ethics, knowledge, and the relationship between science and belief.
abstracted intelligible species(what Aquinas says the intellect works with): Mental concepts or ideas formed when your mind takes what you sense (like a specific red apple) and strips away the particular details to form a general idea (like 'redness' or 'apple-ness' in general).
cogitative faculty(identified as what gives direct contact with existing singulars): An internal sense power (in Aquinas's philosophy) that sits between your five senses and your intellect; it lets you perceive particular things and judge whether they're good or bad for you, without yet forming universal ideas.
existing singulars

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