Hervaeus Natalis (d. 1323)

The French scholastic philosopher and theologian Hervaeus Natalis was not only one of the most influential early Thomists, but was also an original thinker who made an important contribution to the medieval debate on intentionality. He examined carefully the ontological question of what intentional objects are, and discussed the epistemological problem of how they are generated in a cognitive act. Hervaeus argued that intentional objects are ‘third entities’ that cannot be reduced to extramental or mental entities, a thesis that sparked controversy in the fourteenth century.