Mens

In Renaissance philosophy, the term “mind” is mostly used to indicate the unity of the cognitive processes governing speculative activity in a non-discursive way. Mind is always distinguished from reason, which indicates the reworking process of the sensitive species provided by the senses and of the Fantasmata provided by the imagination. Some Platonic scholars use the term “mind” as a synonym for “intellect,” while for the Averroist ones, it stands for the unity of the intellectual faculties. During this period Augustine’s notion of mind-soul has been philosophically reworked along with an effort at combining it with the Aristotelian model (intellectual powers). Some Renaissance philosophers have rejected Augustine’s notion to devise new original conceptions of mind-soul, reworking the late ancient philosophy, such as the Alessandrinists. Averroist philosophers from the Universities of Paris, Padua, and Bologna have also affirmed the doctrine of the mortality of mind-soul.