From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordNoēsis is the act of thinking or apprehending intellectually.
- In StobaeusThe discussion contrasts outward-directed perception with intellect’s gathering into itself, then considers thinkers who identify imagination in a rational creature with thinking.
- In this edition“Thinking” is natural in prose; “intellection” helps distinguish the act associated with nous from other cognitive operations.
- A place to beginIntellectual thinking is compared with perception and materialist accounts of imagination.
- English renderings
- intellection; thinking
Meaning
Noēsis is the act of thinking or apprehending intellectually. Its scope varies with theories of the relation between intellect, imagination, and matter.
Use in the book
The discussion contrasts outward-directed perception with intellect’s gathering into itself, then considers thinkers who identify imagination in a rational creature with thinking. The latter position is explained as consistent with dependence on matter. The excerpt’s contrast should be retained instead of giving noēsis one unvarying psychological mechanism.
Places to read
- I.48.5.6Intellectual thinking is compared with perception and materialist accounts of imagination.
Translation in this edition
“Thinking” is natural in prose; “intellection” helps distinguish the act associated with nous from other cognitive operations.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 314. The transition connecting the competing accounts is textually strained; the clearer statement about rational imagination does not remove that difficulty.