Divine illumination
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According to divine illumination, the process of human thought needs to be aided by
History
Plato quotes Socrates in The Apology as saying that he had a divine or spiritual sign that began when he was a child. It was a voice that turned him away from something he was about to do, although it never encouraged him to do anything. Apuleius later suggested the voice was of a friendly demon[2] and that Socrates deserved this help as he was the most perfect of human beings.
The early Christian philosopher
- If we both see that what you say is true, and we both see that what I say is true, then where do we see that? Not I in you, nor you in me, but both of us in that unalterable truth that is above our minds.[5]
Augustine's theory was defended by Christian philosophers of the later Middle Ages, particularly
- Things have existence in the mind, in their own nature (proprio genere), and in the eternal art. So the truth of things as they are in the mind or in their own nature – given that both are changeable – is sufficient for the soul to have certain knowledge only if the soul somehow reaches things as they are in the eternal art.[6]
The doctrine was criticised by
On the other hand, Henry of Ghent defended a different version of the theory, which, according to Henry himself and to various scholars, would be closer to the Augustinian one. Henry argued against Aquinas that Aristotle's theory of abstraction is not enough to explain how we can acquire infallible knowledge of the truth, and must be supplemented by divine illumination. A thing has two exemplars against which it can be compared. The first is a created exemplar which exists in the soul through abstraction. The second is an exemplar which exists outside the soul, and which is uncreated and eternal. But no comparison to a created exemplar can give us infallible truth. Since the dignity of man requires that we can acquire such truth, it follows that we have access to the exemplar in the divine mind.[13]
Henry's defence of divine illumination was strongly criticised by the Franciscan theologian
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Divine Illumination" entry by Robert Pasnau in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ De deo Socratis, XVII–XIX)
- ^ Confessions IV.xv.25
- ^ Confessions X.ii.2
- ^ Confessions XII.xxv.35
- ^ De scientia Christi, q.4 resp
- ^ Summa theologiae 1a2ae 109.1c
- ^ See ibidem
- ^ Summa theologiae 1a2ae 109.1ad2
- ^ Summa theologiae 1a 84.5c
- ^ See Summa theologiae 1a 84.5c
- ^ Schumacher (2011), pp. 173–178.
- ^ Gracia & Noone (2008).
Works cited
- Gracia, Jorge J. E.; Noone, Timothy B., eds. (2008). A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Wiley. ISBN 978-0470997321.
- Schumacher, Lydia (2011). Divine Illumination: The History and Future of Augustine’s Theory of Knowledge. Malden-Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.