ABSTRACT
Zubiri's philosophy is modern. It includes the latest scientific discoveries and views that were current during his lifetime in the fields of mathematics, anthropology, physiology, quantum physics, many branches of psychology and sciences. Zubiri reconsidered and reformulated the notion of intelligence and the foundation of western philosophy from the view of a sentient intelligence, that is, intelligence as a sentient act of apprehending reality. In Zubiri's philosophy, humanity is the species that uses its senses intellectively to apprehend reality, and the primary mode of human intellective knowing he terms the "primary apprehension of reality". In his essay "On the origin of man", Zubiri asserts that in order for the human species, as Homo sapiens, to be viable, our species demanded an intellective psyche. This psyche is constituted by the anatomico-physiological pre-human hominid, yet supersedes it. Historically, the human psyche has been conceived to be rational, that is, humanity is the rational animal.
