ABSTRACT
Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d. 1037) was the most prominent of the Aristotelian philosophers who flourished in Islamic lands in the ninth–twelfth centuries. His doctrine of the agent intellect interprets Aristotle’s account of understanding in Book III of the De anima. According to Aristotle, understanding involves a receptive factor and an active factor. Ancient and medieval interpreters of Aristotle call the receptive factor “material” or “possible” intellect and the active factor “agent” intellect. 1 Like most Greek and Islamic Aristotelians, Avicenna sees the agent intellect as a singular separate substance, not a power of the human soul. His doctrine of the agent intellect concerns its causal contribution to human understanding. 2
