Aquinas on Rationality and Perception

The purpose of the present study is to reappraise some recent interpretations of the relation between rationality and perception in Thomas Aquinas. The common opinion is that Aquinas defends a standard view of sense perception. Our reasoning can be rational or even irrational (when mistaken or incorrectly governed by reason), but perception cannot. This view has been disputed over the last years. My poisition is that the standard view may be defended, but after qualification. We need to distinguish between two ways of considering sense perception in Aquinas: the process of "reception" of sensory information from external reality is different indeed from the process of having "perceptual experience" of an extramental thing. Such a distinction permits us to assess more closely Aquinas's account of the interaction between the sensory soul and the rational soul in the case of human beings.