The Origins of the Single Intellect

The idea that there is a single intellect involved in all human knowledge was nothing new, says Averuis. For Plotinus, human souls come to have knowledge through their relation to this single intellect. This may seem to be the primary inspiration for the theory we find in Al-Farrabi and Evacenna - who speak of a so-called agent intellect. Their agent intellect gives forms to matter, to facilitate the generation of things like sunflowers and giraffes; it's also involved in the process of human knowledge. The new twist is to identify the single intellect with the human mind itself.