Philosophy of Mind: Thinking, Sensing, and Imagination

How does thinking differ from sensing, both external and internal?

• Thinking requires an organ, while sensing does not.

• Thinking deals with universals, while sensing deals with particulars.

• Sensing requires no organ, while thinking requires the eye.

• Both thinking and sensing deal with particulars.

What function does imagination serve as coming between the external senses and thought?

• Imagination is not involved in thought processes.

• Imagination is required for recalling previous examples to determine the essence of a subject.

• Imagination only helps with physical actions.

• Imagination replaces the need for memory.

According to Aquinas, do irrational animals act on the basis of their external senses or their imaginations?

• Their intellect

• Their external senses or their imaginations

• Their will

• Their memory alone

What is intentional reception?

• Receiving the form and the matter together

• Receiving the form without the matter, so the form can be present in the imagination without a physical presence

• Receiving only the matter, not the form

• Rejecting both form and matter

Why must we say that part of the intellect is passive?

• Because it actively creates new forms

• Because it is the blank slate that receives forms, allowing the active intellect to write on it

• Because it is always thinking

• Because it cannot receive any forms

Does an exceedingly intelligible thing damage the mind like an exceedingly loud thing damages the hearing or an exceedingly bright thing damages the sight?

• Yes, it damages the mind in the same way

• No, the mind is not damaged by exceedingly intelligible things

• Yes, but only if the person is not intelligent

• No, but it damages the imagination

What does the text suggest about the mind in relation to the body?

• The mind is separable and not dependent upon the body for existence.

• The mind is entirely dependent on the body for existence.

• The mind cannot exist without physical senses.

• The mind is only active during physical activity.

How does the mind assimilate the world, according to the text?

• By taking the material world and making it immaterial.

• By copying the senses exactly.

• By ignoring the material world.

• By only using physical senses.

According to Anaxagoras, why must the passive intellect be pure?

• So it can take in anything without being limited by matter.

• So it can sense physical objects better.

• So it can remember past experiences.

• So it can control the body’s actions.

What is required for the passive intellect to assimilate “rabbit” given only sense experience and memories of individual rabbits?

• The forms of individual rabbits must be abstracted and stripped of their material conditions.

• The intellect must physically interact with rabbits.

• The intellect must ignore all sensory information.

• The intellect must only use imagination.