This paper’s focus is about some questions concerning the ontology of the angel and the theory of knowledge. About ontology, the main problems discussed by Albert are the metaphysical composition (despite its immateriality) of the angel, the nature of angel’s individuality and the angel’s relationship with the separate intelligences. On this last point Albert, unlike Thomas, argues that angels and intelligences are distinct entities and that the identification between them would be a denial of angel’s ministerial function. In order to (...) accomplish this function, angels must know not only God’s essence, the first object of their contemplation, but also particular things and events of human lives. This is one of the reasons why Albert considers the mind of the angel through a close comparison with the characteristics of the divine mind on the one hand, and with the human mind on the other. The angel, unlike man, is an immaterial entity, devoid of sense organs: in the terms of Aristotelian gnoseology valid for man, it is not clear how angel can know particular things. In order to resolve this difficulty, Albert hints at a cognitive mechanism per applicationem of the innate form of the thing. The angelic mind therefore appears to Albert as characterized, unlike God, by only habitual knowledge of things, which becomes in actu only after a “contact” with the things themselves. (shrink)

On présente ici l’édition critique des questiones de prophetia (1273-1274 env.) attribuées à Nicolas du Pressoir, tout en situant ce texte dans le contexte du débat du xiii e siècle sur la prophétie. Très proche des positions d’Albert le Grand, dont il reprend parfois les formulations à la lettre, Nicolas tient compte également d’autres auteurs (de Guillaume d’Auxerre à Thomas), ce qui lui permet de discuter, non sans originalité, quelques problèmes cruciaux liés au statut épistémologique de la prophétie et à (...) son rapport avec la vertu et la foi. Les questiones de Madrid se présentent à la fois comme un document révélateur de l’état de la question à l’époque, et comme le texte qui conclut idéalement le « siècle de la prophétologie latine ». (shrink)

In its literal meaning, the term ἔκστασις (ekstasis) indicates a displacement, ‘being out of immobility’, and ultimately being outside oneself. To some extent, this term takes on a mystical connotation in late Antiquity, notably in book VI.9.11.24 of Plotinus’ Enneads, where ekstasis is described as a non-ordinary way of seeing. The notion of ecstasy, often inseparable from the concept of vision, would keep its mystical role, though altered in some ways, over the centuries, conceptualizing a specific kind of knowledge, which (...) goes beyond the subject-object opposition, addressing the epistemological issues of perceiving and knowing the divine, and often challenging the nature of the self. This issue offers some attempts to track the constant reshaping and migration of the notions of ecstasy and intellectual or spiritual vision over the history of Western thought, unearthing their structural and constant persistence, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary ages, recurrently in many different non-ultimately-dialectical metaphysical systems. The papers in this volume provide some illustrative examples of the tangled history of the divergent meanings that the notions of ecstasy and vision have taken on, and their considerable reassessments and adaptations to constantly evolving conceptual frameworks, often redefining further notions such as those of rapture, prophecy, sleep, dream, and death. -/- . (shrink)

This paper deals with the discussion by Albert the Great of the possibility of a human knowledge of God. Albert’s reflection on this topics is articulated in different levels: from a first level, concerning our natural or ordinary knowledge of God, to the upper level of the beatific vision after death, passing through the mystical contemplation of divinity during earthly life. Even if he does not exclude the possibility of knowing God through affectus, Albert finally states that God’s essence goes (...) beyond the range of human knowledge. (shrink)