El problema de la gradación ontológica del esse immateriale en Tomás de Aquino

Abstract

In the De Anima Aristotle affirms that to perceive is to receive a sensible form without matter. When Thomas Aquinas comments this passage specifies the definition of the Stagirite and holds that this sensible form has an intentional being (esse intentionale) in the cognitive subject. In this way, he calls spiritual change (immutatio spiritualis) to the process by which a being receives a sensible form that has an intentional existence. The problems about the spiritual change arise when its ontological state is studied. Aquinas declares in several works that it is an immaterial immutation, but in many other works he affirms that it is a material immutation. The aim of this paper is to solve this apparent contradiction, this is possible if it is demonstrated that for Thomas Aquinas there is an ontological gradation.