evidence: - National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Aristotle (384–322 bc): philosopher and scientist of ancient Greece - University of Washington - Introduction to Aristotle - Great Thinkers - Aristotle - Humanities LibreTexts - Biography of Aristotle - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Biography of Aristotle - University of Virginia - Galileo and Einstein - Aristotle - University of California Museum of Paleontology - Biography of Aristotle - World History Encyclopedia - Aristotle - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Biography of Aristotle - The Ethics Centre - Aristotle, the Ancient Greek Philosopher - United States Naval Academy - The Moral Virtues Aristotle - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Aristotle's Logic [...] In a notoriously difficult passage of De anima, Aristotle introduces a further distinction between two kinds of mind: one passive, which can "become all things," and one active, which can "make all things." The active mind, he says, is "separable, impassible, and unmixed." In antiquity and the Middle Ages, this passage was the subject of sharply different interpretations. Some—particularly among Arab commentators—identified the separable active agent with God or with some other superhuman intelligence. Others—particularly among Latin commentators—took Aristotle to be identifying two different faculties within the human mind: an active intellect, which formed concepts, and a passive intellect, which was a storehouse of ideas and beliefs.