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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The intellect's passivity is categorically different from matter's passivity.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotle's hylomorphism treats matter as pure potentiality, but the possible intellect is also characterized as having no actuality prior to thinking (De Anima 429a21-24).
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    • 2.If both matter and the possible intellect are defined by the absence of prior determination, the alleged categorical difference collapses into a difference of degree, not kind.
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    • 3.Simon's distinction between 'with qualitative change' and 'without qualitative change' presupposes a settled account of qualitative change that Aristotle himself never stabilizes across the Categories and Physics.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Averroes argued that the material intellect is neither a form in matter nor matter itself, yet shares matter's indeterminacy — making passivity a structural feature independent of materiality.
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    • 2.If indeterminate receptivity is the criterion for passivity, then distinguishing intellect from matter by appealing to qualitative change merely redescribes the problem rather than resolving it.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.There are two senses of passivity: receiving forms with qualitative change, and receiving forms without qualitative change.
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    • 2.Matter is passive in both senses — it receives forms and undergoes qualitative change.
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    • 3.The intellect receives forms but does not undergo qualitative change.
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