it, is to know that thing confusedly. In this way we can
have knowledge not only of the universal whole, which contains parts
potentially, but also of the integral whole; for each whole can be
known confusedly, without its parts being known. But to know
distinctly what is contained in the universal whole is to know the
less common, as to "animal" indistinctly is to know it as "animal";
whereas to know "animal" distinctly is know it as "rational" or
"irrational animal," that is, to know a man or a lion: therefore our
intellect knows "animal" before it knows man; and the same reason
holds in comparing any more universal idea with the less universal.

Moreover, as sense, like the intellect, proceeds from potentiality to
act, the same order of knowledge appears in the senses. For by sense
we judge of the more common before the less common, in reference both
to place and time; in reference to place, when a thing is seen afar
off it is seen to be a body before it is seen to be an animal; and to
be an animal before it is seen to be a man, and to be a man before it
seen to be Socrates or Plato; and the same is true as regards time,
for a child can distinguish man from not man before he distinguishes
this man from that, and therefore "children at first call men fathers,
and later on distinguish each one from the others" (Phys. i, 1). The
reason of this is clear: because he who knows a thing indistinctly is
in a state of potentiality as regards its principle of distinction; as
he who knows genus is in a state of potentiality as regards
"difference." Thus it is evident that indistinct knowledge is midway
between potentiality and act.

We must therefore conclude that knowledge of the singular and
individual is prior, as regards us, to the knowledge of the universal;
as sensible knowledge is prior to intellectual knowledge. But in both
sense and intellect the knowledge of the more common precedes the
knowledge of the less common.

Reply Obj. 1: The universal can be considered in two ways. First,
the universal nature may be considered together with the intention
of universality. And since the intention of universality--viz. the
relation of one and the same to many--is due to intellectual
abstraction, the universal thus considered is a secondary
consideration. Hence it is said (De Anima i, 1) that the "universal
animal is either nothing or something secondary." But according to
Plato, who held that universals are subsistent, the un