Albert the Great

The aim of natural science is not simply to accept the statements of others, but to investigate the causes that are at work in nature. ("On Minerals")





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Albertus Magnus (before 1200 – November 15, 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a German Catholic Dominican friar and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his lifetime as Doctor universalis and Doctor expertus and, late in his life, the sobriquet Magnus was appended to his name. Scholars such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. (1)
He wrote profusely, from everything to angels to empirical methods of science. Even though he was strongly orthodox in his beliefs, his science was acute for that time, and exceptional. This can be seen in one of his quotes, "Every science and knowledge proceeds from God."
 Albert’s psychology, used three epistemological principles to differentiate the internal senses:
1. Internal sense powers are distinguished by their objects, and these are either the images (forms) of the proper and common sensibles or nonsensible intentions added to them.
2. They are also distinguished as active if they manipulate their objects and passive if they merely receive them.
3. Yet a faculty cannot be both actively receptive and passively retentive; since an actively receptive organ must be easily changeable, a retentive organ must be stable. 

He sees the moral good as being the good springing from habit (bonum consuetudinis), which he further differentiates as the good which is the object of a moral act (bonum in genere), the good resulting from circumstance (ex circumstantia), and the good of political-civil virtue (bonum virtutis politicae). On the other hand, he perceives it as the good of grace (bonum gratiae). (2)

Under certain conditions concerning its powers the human intellect is capable of transformation. While it is true that under the stimulus or illumination of the agent intellect the possible intellect can consider the intelligible form of the phantasms of the mind which are derived from the senses, it can also operate under the sole influence of the agent intellect. Here, Albert argues, the possible intellect undergoes a complete transformation and becomes totally actualized, as the agent intellect becomes its form. It emerges as what he calls the “adept intellect” (intellectus adeptus).

At this stage the human intellect is susceptible to illumination by higher cosmic intellects called the “intelligences”. Such illumination brings the soul of man into complete harmony with the entire order of creation and constitutes man’s natural happiness. Since the intellect is now totally assimilated to the order of things Albert calls the intellect in its final stage of development the “assimilated intellect” (intellectus assimilativus). The condition of having attained an assimilated intellect constitutes natural human happiness, realizing all the aspirations of the human condition and human culture. But Albert makes it clear that the human mind cannot attain this state of assimilation on its own. Following the Augustinian tradition as set forth in the De magistro Albert states that “because the divine truth lies beyond our reason we are not able by ourselves to discover it, unless it condescends to infuse itself; for as Augustine says, it is an inner teacher, without whom an external teacher labors aimlessly.” Natural things, he tells us, are received in a natural light, while the things that the intellect contemplates in the order of belief (ad credenda vero) are received in a light that is gratuitous (gratuitum est), and the beatifying realities are received in the light of glory. (3)

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertus_Magnus
2. file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/A%20Companion%20to%20Albert%20the%20Grea%20-%20Resnick,%20Irven%20Michael_6204.pdf
3. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/albert-great/#PsycAnth