1 Objection 1: It would seem that the reason is a distinct power from the intellect. For it is stated in De Spiritu et Anima that when we wish to rise from lower things to higher, first the sense comes to our aid, then imagination, then reason, then the intellect. Therefore the reason is distinct from the intellect, as imagination is from sense.
1 Ad octavum sic proceditur. Videtur quod ratio sit alia potentia ab intellectu. In libro enim de spiritu et anima dicitur, cum ab inferioribus ad superiora ascendere volumus, prius occurrit nobis sensus, deinde imaginatio, deinde ratio, deinde intellectus. Est ergo alia potentia ratio ab intellectu, sicut imaginatio a ratione.
2 Objection 2: Further, Boethius says De Consol. iv, 6), that intellect is compared to reason, as eternity to time. But it does not belong to the same power to be in eternity and to be in time. Therefore reason and intellect are not the same power.
2 Praeterea, Boetius dicit, in libro de Consol., quod intellectus comparatur ad rationem sicut aeternitas ad tempus. Sed non est eiusdem virtutis esse in aeternitate et esse in tempore. Ergo non est eadem potentia ratio et intellectus.
3 Objection 3: Further, man has intellect in common with the angels, and sense in common with the brutes. But reason, which is proper to man, whence he is called a rational animal, is a power distinct from sense. Therefore is it equally true to say that it is distinct from the intellect, which properly belongs to the angel: whence they are called intellectual.
3 Praeterea, homo communicat cum Angelis in intellectu, cum brutis vero in sensu. Sed ratio, quae est propria hominis, qua animal rationale dicitur, est alia potentia a sensu. Ergo pari ratione est alia potentia ab intellectu, qui proprie convenit Angelis, unde et intellectuales dicuntur.
4 On the contrary, Augustine says Gen. ad lit. iii, 20) that that in which man excels irrational animals is reason, or mind, or intelligence or whatever appropriate name we like to give it. Therefore, reason, intellect and mind are one power.
4 Sed contra est quod Augustinus dicit, III super Gen. ad Litt., quod illud quo homo irrationabilibus animalibus antecellit, est ratio, vel mens, vel intelligentia, vel si quo alio vocabulo commodius appellatur. Ratio ergo et intellectus et mens sunt una potentia.
5 I answer that, Reason and intellect in man cannot be distinct powers. We shall understand this clearly if we consider their respective actions. For to understand is simply to apprehend intelligible truth: and to reason is to advance from one thing understood to another, so as to know an intelligible truth. And therefore angels, who according to their nature, possess perfect knowledge of intelligible truth, have no need to advance from one thing to another; but apprehend the truth simply and without mental discussion, as Dionysius says Div.
Nom. vii). But man arrives at the knowledge of intelligible truth by advancing from one thing to another; and therefore he is called rational. Reasoning, therefore, is compared to understanding, as movement is to rest, or acquisition to possession; of which one belongs to the perfect, the other to the imperfect. And since movement always proceeds from something immovable, and ends in something at rest; hence it is that human reasoning, by way of inquiry and discovery, advances from certain things simply understood, namely, the first principles; and, again, by way of judgment returns by analysis to first principles, in the light of which it examines what it has found.
Now it is clear that rest and movement are not to be referred to different powers, but to one and the same, even in natural things: since by the same nature a thing is moved towards a certain place. Much more, therefore, by the same power do we understand and reason: and so it is clear that in man reason and intellect are the same power.
5 Respondeo dicendum quod ratio et intellectus in homine non possunt esse diversae potentiae. Quod manifeste cognoscitur, si utriusque actus consideretur. Intelligere enim est simpliciter veritatem intelligibilem apprehendere. Ratiocinari autem est procedere de uno intellecto ad aliud, ad veritatem intelligibilem cognoscendam. Et ideo Angeli, qui perfecte possident, secundum modum suae naturae, cognitionem intelligibilis veritatis, non habent necesse procedere de uno ad aliud; sed simpliciter et absque discursu veritatem rerum apprehendunt, ut Dionysius dicit, VII cap. de Div. Nom. Homines autem ad intelligibilem veritatem cognoscendam perveniunt, procedendo de uno ad aliud, ut ibidem dicitur, et ideo rationales dicuntur. Patet ergo quod ratiocinari comparatur ad intelligere sicut moveri ad quiescere, vel acquirere ad habere, quorum unum est perfecti, aliud autem imperfecti. Et quia motus semper ab immobili procedit, et ad aliquid quietum terminatur; inde est quod ratiocinatio humana, secundum viam inquisitionis vel inventionis, procedit a quibusdam simpliciter intellectis, quae sunt prima principia; et rursus, in via iudicii, resolvendo redit ad prima principia, ad quae inventa examinat. Manifestum est autem quod quiescere et moveri non reducuntur ad diversas potentias, sed ad unam et eandem, etiam in naturalibus rebus, quia per eandem naturam aliquid movetur ad locum, et quiescit in loco. Multo ergo magis per eandem potentiam intelligimus et ratiocinamur. Et sic patet quod in homine eadem potentia est ratio et intellectus.
6 Reply to Objection 1: That enumeration is made according to the order of actions, not according to the distinction of powers. Moreover, that book is not of great authority.
6 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod illa enumeratio fit secundum ordinem actuum, non secundum distinctionem potentiarum. Quamvis liber ille non sit magnae auctoritatis.
7 Reply to Objection 2: The answer is clear from what we have said. For eternity is compared to time as immovable to movable. And thus Boethius compared the intellect to eternity, and reason to time.
7 Ad secundum patet responsio ex dictis. Aeternitas enim comparatur ad tempus, sicut immobile ad mobile. Et ideo Boetius comparavit intellectum aeternitati, rationem vero tempori.
8 Reply to Objection 3: Other animals are so much lower than man that they cannot attain to the knowledge of truth, which reason seeks. But man attains, although imperfectly, to the knowledge of intelligible truth, which angels know. Therefore in the angels the power of knowledge is not of a different genus fro that which is in the human reason, but is compared to it as the perfect to the imperfect.
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod alia animalia sunt ita infra hominem, quod non possunt attingere ad cognoscendam veritatem, quam ratio inquirit. Homo vero attingit ad cognoscendam intelligibilem veritatem, quam Angeli cognoscunt; sed imperfecte. Et ideo vis cognoscitiva Angelorum non est alterius generis a vi cognoscitiva rationis, sed comparatur ad ipsam ut perfectum ad imperfectum.