MARIA ISABEL GONÇALVES DE SOUZA NOGUEIRA DA SILVA

The soul's self-knowledge is present in the Summa theologiae, a late work by Thomas Aquinas, in the Prima Pars, question 87, clearly influenced by Aristotle and Augustine. Aquinas initiates the argument from the self-knowledge of the intellective power, passing through the knowledge of habits, until he arrives at the knowledge of the acts of the intellect and of the will. Many contemporary commentators tried to establish in Aquinas the knowledge of the subject – an issue absent in this author's textual scheme. This work intends to highlight some aspects ignored by commentators, especially the necessity of the actualization of the knower and the precendence of the particular knowledge of the soul.