Abstract

This essay defends an existential interpretation of the epistemology of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas' cognitive theory has been traditionally interpreted in an Aristotelian way. But this has led to many difficulties, such as explaining intellect/sense cooperation, the process of abstraction, and how the intellect knows the singular existent. However, Aquinas' texts also support a different, more existential interpretation which emphasizes a direct, immediate knowledge of sensible being through the cognitive unity of intellect and sense, with the essence of a thing revealed through the limits of its ontological activity. ;The problems with the Aristotelian reading of St. Thomas are confirmed by later developments in scholastic thought. Specifically, Duns Scotus tried to remedy the problems inherent in the Aristotelian epistemological framework with his well-known theory of intuitive cognition. However, he was unable to escape serious problems caused by the dichotomy between intellect and sense and between singular and universal. Nor were William of Ockham and, much later, Francisco Suarez any more successful in solving the problems inspired by Aristotle. ;The suggested interpretation not only solves some serious long-standing problems in Aquinas but can also be used to correct some of the serious deficiencies in his scholastic successors. In this approach, Aristotelian principles in St. Thomas are not abandoned, but reinterpreted with an emphasis on the Thomistic texts which allow an immediate knowledge of singular sensible being with a concomitant knowledge of essence through the being's activities