Deely, Aquinas, and Poinsot: How the intentionality of inner sense transcends the limits of empiricism
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Anthony J. Lisska
Abstract
In Four ages of understanding, John Deely considers (among many things) issues in the philosophy of mind rooted in the Aristotelian tradition. One specific item concerns perceiving the individual as an individual that is not reducible to an empiricist “bundle of sensations.” Deely, in discussing Poinsot on inner sense and perception through an intentio insensata, suggests that most modern and contemporary philosophers neglected Poinsot's insights, a partial exception being Thomas Reid. The present essay offers an explicatio textus of Aquinas's texts shedding light on the role the vis cogitativa with its intentio insensata plays in transcending classical empiricism. Deely's analysis brings to the forefront this philosophical discussion. Nonetheless, Deely's analysis omits discussing how late twentieth century analytic philosophy of mind has ventured nearer this set of epistemological concerns than his book appears to indicate. This essay covers that omission.
© 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
Articles in the same Issue
- Why read Deely? Introduction to the Four ages special issue
- The integration of Thomistic intentionality theory and contemporary semiotics
- The history of philosophy as a semiotic process: A note on John Deely's momumental Four ages of understanding
- Suggestions of a Neoplatonic semiotics: Act and potency in Plotinus' metaphysics
- Two steps toward semiotic capacity: Out of the muddy concept of language
- Relations: The true substrate for evolution
- The church of pragmatism
- Is modernity really so bad? John Deely and Husserl's phenomenology
- Deely, Aquinas, and Poinsot: How the intentionality of inner sense transcends the limits of empiricism
- From sémiologie to postmodernism: A genealogy
- The inferential and equational models from ancient times to the postmodern
- Four Ages of underrating: Philosophy and zoösemiotic issues
- Cosmic semiosis: Contuiting the Divine
- Understanding the four ages of thought
Articles in the same Issue
- Why read Deely? Introduction to the Four ages special issue
- The integration of Thomistic intentionality theory and contemporary semiotics
- The history of philosophy as a semiotic process: A note on John Deely's momumental Four ages of understanding
- Suggestions of a Neoplatonic semiotics: Act and potency in Plotinus' metaphysics
- Two steps toward semiotic capacity: Out of the muddy concept of language
- Relations: The true substrate for evolution
- The church of pragmatism
- Is modernity really so bad? John Deely and Husserl's phenomenology
- Deely, Aquinas, and Poinsot: How the intentionality of inner sense transcends the limits of empiricism
- From sémiologie to postmodernism: A genealogy
- The inferential and equational models from ancient times to the postmodern
- Four Ages of underrating: Philosophy and zoösemiotic issues
- Cosmic semiosis: Contuiting the Divine
- Understanding the four ages of thought
