Aquinas on Intuitional Intellect and Innate Knowledge: A Case Study of Angels

Yucong HU

International Journal of Catholic Studies ›› 2025, Vol. 0 ›› Issue (17) : 95-114.

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International Journal of Catholic Studies ›› 2025, Vol. 0 ›› Issue (17) : 95-114. DOI: 10.30239/IJCS.202512_(17).0004
Special Feature: Thomas Aquinas and China

Aquinas on Intuitional Intellect and Innate Knowledge: A Case Study of Angels

  • Yucong HU
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Abstract

Angels serve as intermediaries between humanity and God, yet the operation of angelic intellect and the nature of angelic knowledge have received insufficient scholarly attention. Because angels lack matter, angelic intellect acquires knowledge through internal intuition of itself, and angelic knowledge is characterized by its interiority, requiring no external input. Confronting the divine-human tension inherent in angelic intellect, Aquinas clarifies the identity of understanding and being in the perfection of intellect by positioning the specificational character of angelic intellect's operation and the intellect's "supernatural natural desire," thereby establishing an ontological boundary between the created and the uncreated. This intuitive and interior conception of intellect constitutes a distinctively characteristic epistemological framework within Thomism.

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Thomas Aquinas / angelic intellect / innate species / supernatural / understanding and being.

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Yucong HU. Aquinas on Intuitional Intellect and Innate Knowledge: A Case Study of Angels[J]. International Journal of Catholic Studies. 2025, 0(17): 95-114 https://doi.org/10.30239/IJCS.202512_(17).0004
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