SOURCE: "Albert on the Psychology of Sense Perception," in Albertus Magnus and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays 1980, edited by James A. Weisheipl, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980, pp. 263-90.

In the following essay, Steneck explores Albert's theory of sense perception, arguing that it typifies the general level of scientific understanding in the field at the time.

By the mid-fourteenth century, when the anonymous Tractatus ad libros Aristotelis … was copied, most Latin writers in the scholastic tradition held in common a conceptualization of sense perception that served well the needs of natural philosophers, theologians, and physicians alike. While there was debate about the fine details of this conceptualization, its basic outline was clearly understood by all involved. Two centuries earlier, when Adelard of Bath wrote his well-known Quaestiones naturales, the situation was quite the reverse. Numerous ancient teachings on sense perception were known in part, but no single theory was...