The Picture Theory of the Phantasm

Abstract

Aquinas's realism is underpinned by his theory of cognition as the reception of sensible forms that exist in nature. In order to convey the receptivity of cognitive powers to forms in nature he, like Aristotle, likens sensation and intellection to wax being impressed with the shape of a seal. While this metaphor vividly emphasizes the receptive aspect of human perception and intellection, it does not convey the whole picture. The perceptual awareness, which we share with brutes, of our goal-directed interactions with environment, is likewise essential to realism; our human awareness of these interactions is transformed, if you will, by the human "instinct" for the universal good, so that it can become the basis of our receiving forms through which we know the nature of things. Without the interactive component of perception, we would be left with the "picture theory of the phantasm," at which point Aquinas's theory of abstraction would break down. In such a case, we would either possess no genuine knowledge or what knowledge we did possess would be innate rather than acquired through the senses. Our only alternative is to seek to understand perception as a synergy of its active and passive aspects. Aquinas himself manifests such an understanding of perception in his description of the many roles performed by the cogitative power.