Hegel’s engagement with Aristotle’s De Anima centers on the active intellect

Evidence

God is pure activity (reine Tätigkeit)… . [He is] the substance which in its potentiality also has its actuality, the substance whose essence (potentia) is itself activity and in which the two are not separable; in it, possibility cannot be distinguished from form (Form), and it is that which itself produces (produziert) its own content, its own determinations. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 469 (#expands, via linked claim)

The Renaissance was not a period of great achievement in philosophy, but it did certain things which were essential preliminaries to the greatness of the seventeenth century. In the first place, it broke down the rigid scholastic system, which had become an intellectual strait jacket. It revived the study of Plato, and thereby demanded at least so much independent thought as was required for choosing between him and Aristotle. In regard to both, it promoted a genuine and first-hand knowledge, free from the glosses of Neoplatonists and Arabic commentators. More important still, it encouraged the habit of regarding intellectual activity as a delightful social adventure, not a cloistered meditation aiming at the preservation of a predetermined orthodoxy. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1858 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Hegel reads the Prime Mover as pure activity where potentiality and actuality are inseparable — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 469; The Renaissance broke scholasticism and revived direct study of Plato and Aristotle. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1858; Hegel’s reading of Aristotle may yield an anthropological interpretation of substance itself — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 490

Broader Connections

• Hegel reads the Prime Mover as pure activity where potentiality and actuality are inseparable #expands (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 469
• The Renaissance broke scholasticism and revived direct study of Plato and Aristotle. #complicates (0.70) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1858