In treating of these acts we shall proceed in the following order: First, we shall inquire how the soul understands when united to the body; secondly, how it understands when separated therefrom.
The former of these inquiries will be threefold:
(1) How the soul understands bodies which are beneath it;
(2) How it understands itself and things contained in itself;
(3) How it understands immaterial substances, which are above it.
In treating of the knowledge of corporeal things there are three points to be considered:
(1) Through what does the soul know them?
(2) How and in what order does it know them?
(3) What does it know in them?
Under the first head there are eight points of inquiry: