In this episode of Angelicum Conversations, Fr. Philip-Neri speaks with Professor Thérèse Cory of the University of Notre Dame about Aquinas’s understanding of the verbum mentis, or “mental word.”
What is a thought for Aquinas? Is the mind directed toward the world through an inner mental object—or is thinking better understood as a natural perfection of the intellect itself?
Drawing on medieval philosophy, Trinitarian theology, and the history of Thomistic interpretation, Professor Cory explains why the verbum mentis has played such an important role in Catholic thought, and why she believes a dominant modern reading of Aquinas gets it wrong.
The conversation explores Aquinas’s account of cognition, the development of the “immanent object” interpretation, the influence of early modern philosophy on later Thomism, and why recovering Aquinas’s original framework matters for theology today.
👉 Full transcript & show notes: https://media.angelicum.it/online-series/angelicum-conversations/episode-7-how-does-the-mind-know-reality/
📖 Angelicum Conversations is a new interview series from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. Each episode features thoughtful dialogue on theology, philosophy, and culture—conversations that reflect the Angelicum’s mission of serving the Church through study, contemplation, and teaching.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:41 What Is the Verbum Mentis?
2:56 Is Thinking an Inner Language?
4:05 Concept, Definition, and Intellectual Achievement
5:56 Why the Verbum Mentis Matters for the Trinity
10:12 The Traditional “Immanent Object” Interpretation
13:59 Descartes and the Mind-World Gap
16:40 Neo-Scholasticism, Kant, and Later Thomism
18:38 Why Cory Thinks This Is Not Aquinas’s View
19:00 The Mind as a Nature Among Other Natures
21:45 Thinking as Part of the Natural World
25:28 Thought, Error, and Natural Perfection
28:45 So What Is the Verbum Mentis, Then?
34:53 Objections to the “Thought Interpretation”
38:16 Conclusion
