Casiciaco Recoletos Seminary
Man without His Intellective Knowledge PDF Print E-mail
One of the most interesting topics that I came across is the Existence of Intellective Knowledge in Man.
Man is the only being capable of intellection. Aside from the sensitive dimension, man is able to transcend the data from sensation to intellection. The data gathered undergoes three distinct operations of conceptualization, judgments and reasoning.  

Sometimes, I am tempted to ask of the possibility of human knowledge is reduced to sensation or consciousness. What if man relied solely on basic instinct as the source of knowledge? Well, we would be living in a world without order. Since, the possession of intellective knowledge carries with it the use of language. There would be no order because we would not understand each other. We may communicate at times but it would be very limited. We would not be able to explain, expound and reason out. Most likely we would be like brutes making so much noise and is not be able to express what we truly think and feel. Possibly, like animals we can only make sounds when we are hungry or in pain. These would be the only things that we could communicate to others.

The best illustrative example I can come up with is Tarzan. Yes, Tarzan was a human being endowed with sensitive and intellective knowledge. Unfortunately, there was no one there to teach him on the use of language and his intellect. Possibly he may have made self discoveries of his own but still by the looks of the situation I believe his level of intellect is reduced to that of an animal. Now these are some of the situations that point to the use of the intellective knowledge.
What is the role of the intellective knowledge now? What does it do?

Let us proceed by understanding the intellective knowledge for a better foundation of answering situations similar to those mentioned above. The intellective dimension in man, he possesses universal concepts, judgments and language. There are two spheres in the intellect of man, the sensitive knowledge and the Intellective knowledge. It is the sensitive knowledge’s job to absorb what can be perceived through the senses (external and internal), transport them to the intellective knowledge where it undergoes the three operations.

The intellective knowledge gives man the capacity to judge and reason out. The intellective process includes the putting of two concepts together to formulate a judgment. Man formulates judgments, universal affirmations and general laws. After putting together different judgments we proceed to reasoning. Man then arrives at certain ideas by his reflection on other ideas.

The intellective knowledge is only proper to man. It is only man who is capable of conceptualizing, judging and inferring. Animals have only sensitive knowledge since they have senses. But they cannot reason out nor conceptualize. That is why one has never and will never encounter an animal who can converse with you following a sane pattern. You can talk to a parrot but it would repeat and repeat the words it can utter. Animals have only consciousness while man possesses self-consciousness or what we call reflexive knowledge wherein he knows that he knows.

The act of conceptualizing, judging and inferring presupposes in man the capacity of abstraction. This is another faculty proper only to man. Abstraction is the capacity to form universal concepts that are applied to all other particular and concrete objects. Man looks at the tree as green, brown, tall, short, with fruit or without fruit, then forms the concept of a tree which is applied to all trees. Animals on the other hand, sees a tree (using sensation) but is incapable of thinking of this tree for again the faculty of thinking is only proper to man. Man as a thinking being can even think of things that do not exist in themselves, but only as qualities of concrete beings such as wisdom, justice, peace. Obviously, animals are not capable of this and here we see the differences of man (endowed with intellection) and animals (endowed only with sensation).

Basically, what I have presented is the importance of the intellective knowledge. Not only in the communication of ideas but in the conceptualization and the fruits that it brings are seen in judgment and inference. If man did not possess intellective knowledge, his level of intellect would be reduced to that of an animal. He may be able to communicate but on a very shallow level. I would like to state that. The intellective knowledge’s role in man is to enable him to perform the three operations and allows him to use language. These make man a man. This is what enables him to communicate his ideas and his thoughts. This is what also enables him to decide especially on moral situations.
What then is the product if man does not have intellective knowledge? I believe that this would reduce us to the level of animals. s to the levelith the animals. intellective knowledge?

  • Ramon Lucas, L’Uomo Spirito Incarnato. Compendio di filosofia dell’uomo (Torino: Edizione San Paolo 1997)
 
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