noûs Greek term for mind or the faculty of reason. Noûs is the highest type of thinking, the kind a god would do. Sometimes called the faculty of intellectual intuition, it is at work when someone understands definitions, concepts, and anything else that is grasped all at once. Noûs stands in contrast with another intellectual faculty, dianoia. When we work through the steps of an argument, we exercise dianoia; to be certain the conclusion is true without argument – to just ‘see’ it, as, perhaps, a god might – is to exercise noûs. Just which objects could be apprehended by noûs was controversial. E.C.H.