Active intellect...

Active intellect, he states, is the third besides the object and the passive intellect, as light is the third besides the eye and the object. Thus, active intellect is said to create the truths that we know, just as light may be said to make colors which we perceive by its aid. We see here at work Aristotle’s general principle that "what is potentially comes to be actually by the agency of something that already is actually" (Metaphysica, 1049b 24).

Aristotle in this entire discussion leaves unexplained the unity and individuality of human personality. Hence the uslim philosophers reformulated the whole theory and brought to it many refinements and elaborations not to be found in Aristotle or his commentators. al-‘aql al-mustafad Accquired intellect, i.e.

the intellect possessed with the comprehension of the universal forms, ultimate concepts and verities of knowledge by which possession it partakes more and more of the agent intellect (al-‘aql al-fa‘‘al, q.v.); also sometimes called al-‘aql bi’l-malakah. al-‘aql al-mufariq The seperated intellect, i.e. the intellect or intelligence of a heavenly sphere which is the cause of its motion; see also al-‘uqul al-‘asharah.

al-‘aql al-nazari Theoretical reason or intellect which enables us to form universal concepts, comprehend meanings and interconnections of things, enter into argumentative discussion and have abstract thinking in general. See also al-quwwat al-‘aqliyah. al-‘aql al-hayulani The material intellect, also called al-‘aql bi’l-quwwah, i.e. potential intellect.

It is the human intellect in its dormant form, merely a latent capacity to apprehend the universals and eternal truths subsistent in the active or agent intellect (al-‘aql al-fa‘‘al, q.v.). al-‘uqul al-‘asharah The ten intelligences, i.e.