1 Objection 1: It would seem that the intelligence is another power than the intellect. For we read in De Spiritu et Anima that when we wish to rise from lower to higher things, first the sense comes to our aid, then imagination, then reason, then intellect, and afterwards intelligence. But imagination and sense are distinct powers. Therefore also intellect and intelligence are distinct.
1 Ad decimum sic proceditur. Videtur quod intelligentia sit alia potentia ab intellectu. Dicitur enim in libro de spiritu et anima, quod cum ab inferioribus ad superiora ascendere volumus, prius occurrit nobis sensus, deinde imaginatio, deinde ratio, postea intellectus, et postea intelligentia. Sed imaginatio et sensus sunt diversae potentiae. Ergo et intellectus et intelligentia.
2 Objection 2: Further, Boethius says De Consol. v, 4) that sense considers man in one way, imagination in another, reason in another, intelligence in another. But intellect is the same power as reason. Therefore, seemingly, intelligence is a distinct power from intellect, as reason is a distinct power from imagination or sense.
2 Praeterea, Boetius dicit, in V de Consol., quod ipsum hominem aliter sensus, aliter imaginatio, aliter ratio, aliter intelligentia intuetur. Sed intellectus est eadem potentia cum ratione. Ergo videtur quod intelligentia sit alia potentia quam intellectus; sicut ratio est alia potentia quam imaginatio et sensus.
3 Objection 3: Further, actions came before powers, as the Philosopher says De Anima ii, 4). But intelligence is an act separate from others attributed to the intellect. For Damascene says De Fide Orth. ii) that the first movement is called intelligence; but that intelligence which is about a certain thing is called intention; that which remains and conforms the soul to that which is understood is called invention, and invention when it remains in the same man, examining and judging of itself, is called phronesis that is, wisdom), and phronesis if dilated makes thought, that is, orderly internal speech; from which, they say, comes speech expressed by the tongue. Therefore it seems that intelligence is some special power.
3 Praeterea, actus sunt praevii potentiis, ut dicitur in II de anima. Sed intelligentia est quidam actus ab aliis actibus qui attribuuntur intellectui divisus. Dicit enim Damascenus quod primus motus intelligentia dicitur; quae vero circa aliquid est intelligentia, intentio vocatur; quae permanens et figurans animam ad id quod intelligitur, excogitatio dicitur; excogitatio vero in eodem manens, et seipsam examinans et diiudicans, phronesis dicitur idest sapientia); phronesis autem dilatata facit cogitationem, idest interius dispositum sermonem; ex quo aiunt provenire sermonem per linguam enarratum. Ergo videtur quod intelligentia sit quaedam specialis potentia.
4 On the contrary, The Philosopher says De Anima iii, 6) that intelligence is of indivisible things in which there is nothing false. But the knowledge of these things belongs to the intellect. Therefore intelligence is not another power than the intellect.
4 Sed contra est quod philosophus dicit, in III de anima, quod intelligentia indivisibilium est, in quibus non est falsum. Sed huiusmodi cognoscere pertinet ad intellectum. Ergo intelligentia non est alia potentia praeter intellectum.
5 I answer that, This word intelligence properly signifies the intellect's very act, which is to understand. However, in some works translated from the Arabic, the separate substances which we call angels are called intelligences, and perhaps for this reason, that such substances are always actually understanding. But in works translated from the Greek, they are called intellects or minds. Thus intelligence is not distinct from intellect, as power is from power; but as act is from power. And such a division is recognized even by the philosophers. For sometimes they assign four intellects, namely, the active and passive intellects, the intellect in habit, and the actual intellect. Of which four the active and passive intellects are different powers; just as in all things the active power is distinct from the passive. But three of these are distinct, as three states of the passive intellect, which is sometimes in potentiality only, and thus it is called passive; sometimes it is in the first act, which is knowledge, and thus it is called intellect in habit; and sometimes it is in the second act, which is to consider, and thus it is called intellect in act, or actual intellect.
5 Respondeo dicendum quod hoc nomen intelligentia proprie significat ipsum actum intellectus qui est intelligere. In quibusdam tamen libris de Arabico translatis, substantiae separatae quas nos Angelos dicimus, intelligentiae vocantur; forte propter hoc, quod huiusmodi substantiae semper actu intelligunt. In libris tamen de Graeco translatis, dicuntur intellectus seu mentes. Sic ergo intelligentia ab intellectu non distinguitur sicut potentia a potentia; sed sicut actus a potentia. Invenitur enim talis divisio etiam a philosophis. Quandoque enim ponunt quatuor intellectus, scilicet intellectum agentem, possibilem, et in habitu, et adeptum. Quorum quatuor intellectus agens et possibilis sunt diversae potentiae; sicut et in omnibus est alia potentia activa, et alia passiva. Alia vero tria distinguuntur secundum tres status intellectus possibilis, qui quandoque est in potentia tantum, et sic dicitur possibilis; quandoque autem in actu primo, qui est scientia, et sic dicitur intellectus in habitu; quandoque autem in actu secundo, qui est considerare, et sic dicitur intellectus in actu, sive intellectus adeptus.
6 Reply to Objection 1: If this authority is accepted, intelligence there means the act of the intellect. And thus it is divided against intellect as act against power.
6 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod, si recipi debet illa auctoritas, intelligentia ponitur pro actu intellectus. Et sic dividitur contra intellectum, sicut actus contra potentiam.
7 Reply to Objection 2: Boethius takes intelligence as meaning that act of the intellect which transcends the act of the reason. Wherefore he also says that reason alone belongs to the human race, as intelligence alone belongs to God, for it belongs to God to understand all things without any investigation.
7 Ad secundum dicendum quod Boetius accipit intelligentiam pro actu intellectus qui transcendit actum rationis. Unde ibidem dicit quod ratio tantum humani generis est, sicut intelligentia sola divini, proprium enim Dei est quod absque omni investigatione omnia intelligat.
8 Reply to Objection 3: All those acts which Damascene enumerates belong to one power, namely, the intellectual power. For this power first of all only apprehends something; and this act is called intelligence. Secondly, it directs what it apprehends to the knowledge of something else, or to some operation; and this is called intention. And when it goes on in search of what it intends, it is called invention. When, by reference to something known for certain, it examines what it has found, it is said to know or to be wise, which belongs to phronesis or wisdom; for it belongs to the wise man to judge, as the Philosopher says Metaph. i, 2). And when once it has obtained something for certain, as being fully examined, it thinks about the means of making it known to others; and this is the ordering of interior speech, from which proceeds external speech. For every difference of acts does not make the powers vary, but only what cannot be reduced to the one same principle, as we have said above Question 78, Article 4).
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod omnes illi actus quos Damascenus enumerat, sunt unius potentiae, scilicet intellectivae. Quae primo quidem simpliciter aliquid apprehendit, et hic actus dicitur intelligentia. Secundo vero, id quod apprehendit, ordinat ad aliquid aliud cognoscendum vel operandum, et hic vocatur intentio. Dum vero persistit in inquisitione illius quod intendit, vocatur excogitatio. Dum vero id quod est excogitatum examinat ad aliqua certa, dicitur scire vel sapere; quod est phronesis, vel sapientiae, nam sapientiae est iudicare, ut dicitur in I Metaphys. Ex quo autem habet aliquid pro certo, quasi examinatum, cogitat quomodo possit illud aliis manifestare, et haec est dispositio interioris sermonis; ex qua procedit exterior locutio. Non enim omnis differentia actuum potentias diversificat; sed solum illa quae non potest reduci in idem principium, ut supra dictum est.