Personal Update: Dissertation Prospectus: Albert the Great’s Metaphysics of Mind/Cognition

Today my dissertation prospectus was officially passed. The dissertation topic is Albert the Great’s metaphysics of mind/cognition. The central focus is on how Albert’s distinctive metaphysics of esse, forms, and formal causation influence his overall cognition theory. The tentative outline of chapters is as follows:

1. Intro
2. The Senses I: External Sense Perception
3. The Senses II: The Internal Senses
4. From Sense to Intellect: Abstraction and Illumination
5. The Intellect I: Its Nature and Operations
6. The Intellect II: Its Objects and Ends
7. Conclusion

I’m writing under Tom Ward, with Tom Hibbs and Alex Pruss rounding out the rest of the committee (so far).

Image credit: Welcome Images (see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Albert._Line_engraving_by_Fisher._Wellcome_V0031512.jpg).