intellection
(ɪntɪˈlɛkʃən)
[ad. late and med.L. intellectiōn-em (in late L. only = Synecdoche; frequent in Schol. med.L.), n. of action from intellegĕre to understand: see intelligent. Cf. F. intellection (in 13– 14th c. tr. Boethius; but otherwise app. not till 17th c.; not in Cotgr. 1611).]
1. The action or process of understanding; the exercise or activity of the intellect; spec. simple apprehension, as distinct from imagination.
| 1614 Jackson Creed iv. vi. §3 If..the will know the good to which it tends..by understanding, to will either formally is or essentially includes such an act as we call intellection. 1625 Ibid. v. xv. §2 Intellection, or vnderstanding is said to be of Vniversalls, not of Particulars. 1650 Charleton Paradoxes 133 The intellect..doth by the act of intellection acquire the figure of the object understood. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §45. 55 Aristotle..somewhere plainly determines, that there is no Intellection without Corporeal Phantasms. 1704 Norris Ideal World ii. iii. 183 They who explain the manner of human understanding by material effluvias and emanations from bodies, seem to leave no room for any distinction between intellection and imagination. 1837–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. IV. iv. iii. §34. 81 No follower of Descartes has more unambiguously than this author distinguished between imagination and intellection. 1856 Dove Logic Chr. Faith v. i. 256 The form of our thought is..determined by the laws of our intellection. |
† b. Applied spec. to the kind of immediate knowledge or intelligence ascribed to divine or angelic beings: cf. intuition. Obs.
| 1628 T. Spencer Logick 8 In this, mans knowledge differs from the knowledge that is in God and the Angels: in that they behold the things in themselues, as they are in themselues, distinct each from other: they doe not know one thing lesse knowne, by the light and reflection of another thing, that is better knowne: wherefore their knowledge, is called intellection, ours is called rationalitie. a 1680 Charnock Attrib. God (1834) I. 525 Some therefore have called God, not intellectus, understanding, because that savours of a faculty; but intellectio, intellection. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. iv. §19 As reason is of kind peculiar to man, so by intellection he [Picus] understands a kind or manner of knowledge peculiar to angels. |
c. (with pl.) A particular act of understanding; sometimes, the permanent mental result of such an act; a conception, notion, idea.
| 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 172 We stande vpon..the trueth of thinges naturall, which either sense or first intellections doth manifestly approue vnto vs. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §18. 353 The Prince and Ruler over all the Celestial Gods, whom he affirmeth to be a Mind understanding himself and converting his Cogitations or Intellections into himself. 1731 Hist. Litteraria I. 382 The internal Actions are the Intellections and Volitions. 1839 B. H. Smart Way out Metaph. 25 An intellection having once occurred, remains with us as a notion or something known. 1847 Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) II. 626 Any conception of Biology which excluded the sensations, instincts, and intellections would be monstrously truncated. |
† d. The faculty of understanding; intellect.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xiii. 67 Thei puttiden al her motyue in her affeccioun or wil forto so trowe; and not in her intelleccioun or resoun. 1504 W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione iii. v. 199 Some other ther be that haue theyr intelleccyon or reason clerely illumyned. 1529 Will of Hollonde (Somerset Ho.), Being hole in mynde & of perfite intellection. 1647 H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. iii. ix, Yet intellection Or higher gets, or at least hath some sent Of God. 1744 Berkeley Siris §254 That which acts naturally is not intellection, but a certain power of moving matter, which doth not know but only do. 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 515 [They] possess intellection themselves from the Father, so far as they energize intellectually, being moved by ineffable counsels. |
† e. That which is obtained by the exercise of the intellect; understanding, information. Obs.
| ? c 1470 G. Ashby Active Policy Prince 391 Countreies..disposed to insurreccion, Wherof ye may haue intelleccion Redyng Cronicles. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. v. (Percy Soc.) 24 Who knewe gramer wythout impediment Shoulde perfytely have intelleccion Of a lytterall cense and moralyzacion. |
† 2. Meaning, intention, purpose, ‘mind’.
| c 1400 Beryn 2473 She..byhete me frendshippe outward by hir chere But inward it was contrary hir intelleccioune. |
† 3. Gram. and Rhet. The figure synecdoche.
| 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Heb. 10, I sayed after this intelleccion, that Leuy, who came of Abraham, gaue tithes vnto Melchisedech. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 92 b, Intellection, called of the Grecians Synecdoche, is a trope, when wee gather or judge the whole by the parte, or part by the whole. |