ABSTRACT
The emergence of the intellect from the matrix of the animal senses must be located first and foremost in the context of a comparative analysis of adaptive strategies. If sensation is centred in the 'early' or lower cortices, then the intellect seems to be centred in the higher, 'neocortex'. Sensation stores images, 'intellect' simply maps images to other images or to actions. The notion that the intellect knows through innate species or ideas was advanced by Plato in certain dialogues and was elaborated by some of the more gnostic of the Neoplatonists. Rather more important are the theories which understand the act of the intellect in terms of rational analysis of self-evident principles, divine illumination, or artistic, religious, or intellectual intuition. Concepts such as the self, the cosmos and God, which Immanuel Kant calls the transcendental ideas, reflect nothing more than the drive of the intellect to unify the experience perfectly.
