"Sicut magnes attrahit ferrum". Tommaso d'Aquino, l'immaterialità dell'intelletto e il fondamento occulto delle virtù naturali

The aim of this paper is to show how Aquinas’ theory of natural occult – relating the curative virtues of stones and herbs to the quality of their substantial forms via celestial influences – outlines the apparent paradox of making the intellect a faculty of the soul without considering it a faculty of the body. By referring to the hierarchy of causes – heavens, intelligences and the prime mover –, Aquinas provides a series of corresponding natural principles culminating in a form, the human soul, which finds in the spirituality of its essence a condition adequate to the incorporeity of its power. In this perspective, which unfolds an ontology of virtues, the triad of essence, power and operation becomes a metaphysical system. The latter imposes an immaterial connaturation on soul and intellect, and reverberates the profile of a liminal entity that is located on the boundary between separate substances and material forms