The distinction between the potential intellect and the active intellect was first drawn by Aristotle. Medieval Islamic, Jewish, Christian philosophers, and European philosophers in the sixteenth century considered it a possible key to deciphering the nature of man and the universe. In this book, Herbert Davidson examines the treatment of intellect in Alfarabi (d. 950), Avicenna (980-1037) and Averroes (1126-1198), with particular attention to the way in which they addressed the tangle of issues that grew up around the active intellect.