All our intellectual activity rests on sensory function; but through the active intellect ( intellectus agens ) an abstract representation of the sensible object is provided for the intellectual possibility.
2.
He used a variation on the Aristotelian notion of the " active intellect " ( " intellectus agens " ) which he interpreted as the ability to abstract universal meanings from particular empirical data.
3.
The Logos impresses the " species intelligibiles " of all created things on the soul, but the " intellectus agens " transforms them gradually into the impressions of sense.