Randal Rauser
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199214600
- eISBN:
- 9780191706509
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214600.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Alvin Plantinga's moderate foundationalism is rooted philosophically in Thomas Reid's common‐sense realism, while its theological background is found in the emphasis within Reformed theology upon ...
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Alvin Plantinga's moderate foundationalism is rooted philosophically in Thomas Reid's common‐sense realism, while its theological background is found in the emphasis within Reformed theology upon faith as knowledge mediated through the sensus divinitatis. Plantinga offers a theory of warrant (as opposed to justification) that assumes externalism and is predicated on the concept of proper function (and so a designer). This theory can be combined with a realist view of concept acquisition through the process of divine illumination. Plantinga's specific account of warranted Christian belief combines the function of the sensus with the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit upon the reading of Scripture. While the theory can also be used to provide an account of prima facie warrant for non‐Christian belief systems (e.g. Mormonism), further work can be done to fine‐tune the theory and make it specific to Christian belief.Less
Alvin Plantinga's moderate foundationalism is rooted philosophically in Thomas Reid's common‐sense realism, while its theological background is found in the emphasis within Reformed theology upon faith as knowledge mediated through the sensus divinitatis. Plantinga offers a theory of warrant (as opposed to justification) that assumes externalism and is predicated on the concept of proper function (and so a designer). This theory can be combined with a realist view of concept acquisition through the process of divine illumination. Plantinga's specific account of warranted Christian belief combines the function of the sensus with the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit upon the reading of Scripture. While the theory can also be used to provide an account of prima facie warrant for non‐Christian belief systems (e.g. Mormonism), further work can be done to fine‐tune the theory and make it specific to Christian belief.
Billy Dunaway
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198798705
- eISBN:
- 9780191848469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198798705.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Theories of “divine illumination” were popular from St Augustine through the Middle Ages. Henry of Ghent is traditionally thought of as providing one of the last and most sophisticated theories of ...
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Theories of “divine illumination” were popular from St Augustine through the Middle Ages. Henry of Ghent is traditionally thought of as providing one of the last and most sophisticated theories of Divine Illumination. This chapter examines one of John Duns Scotus’s main arguments against Henry’s theory of Divine Illumination. The chapter reads Scotus as claiming that Henry’s theory aims, but fails, to avoid skepticism—the conclusion that we can’t have any knowledge on the basis of sensation. It shows how this argument can be understood formally on the basis of an analogy with modal logic, which Scotus explicitly calls attention to. The chapter argues that this way of understanding Scotus’s argument points toward some important refinements that contemporary anti-risk principles in epistemology will need to account for.Less
Theories of “divine illumination” were popular from St Augustine through the Middle Ages. Henry of Ghent is traditionally thought of as providing one of the last and most sophisticated theories of Divine Illumination. This chapter examines one of John Duns Scotus’s main arguments against Henry’s theory of Divine Illumination. The chapter reads Scotus as claiming that Henry’s theory aims, but fails, to avoid skepticism—the conclusion that we can’t have any knowledge on the basis of sensation. It shows how this argument can be understood formally on the basis of an analogy with modal logic, which Scotus explicitly calls attention to. The chapter argues that this way of understanding Scotus’s argument points toward some important refinements that contemporary anti-risk principles in epistemology will need to account for.
Mark Chinca
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198861980
- eISBN:
- 9780191894787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861980.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, European Literature
The chapter has two purposes: to provide a survey of monastic traditions of meditation from roughly the sixth century to the end of the twelfth century, and to describe the transformation of those ...
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The chapter has two purposes: to provide a survey of monastic traditions of meditation from roughly the sixth century to the end of the twelfth century, and to describe the transformation of those traditions in the thirteenth century into a systematic regimen of spiritual exercise with clear and explicit instructions that could be followed by users who did not have the resources of a monastic education and community to draw on. The key figure in this transformation is Bonaventure; the chapter concentrates on the ways in which he introduced greater technical rigor into the practice of meditation and endowed it with the directive quality of a method.Less
The chapter has two purposes: to provide a survey of monastic traditions of meditation from roughly the sixth century to the end of the twelfth century, and to describe the transformation of those traditions in the thirteenth century into a systematic regimen of spiritual exercise with clear and explicit instructions that could be followed by users who did not have the resources of a monastic education and community to draw on. The key figure in this transformation is Bonaventure; the chapter concentrates on the ways in which he introduced greater technical rigor into the practice of meditation and endowed it with the directive quality of a method.
Nicholas Jolley
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199669554
- eISBN:
- 9780191763076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669554.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
In The Search After Truth Malebranche is committed to the Cartesian thesis that the mind has a faculty of pure intellect. In his later philosophy, by contrast, Malebranche comes to abandon the ...
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In The Search After Truth Malebranche is committed to the Cartesian thesis that the mind has a faculty of pure intellect. In his later philosophy, by contrast, Malebranche comes to abandon the Cartesian thesis in favour of a version of the Augustinian doctrine of divine illumination that has no room for it. This chapter argues that Malebranche’s abandonment of the Cartesian thesis leaves a void in his philosophy that he seeks to fill with the puzzling doctrine of efficacious ideas. It is further argued that this doctrine is subject to at least one difficulty that Malebranche does little to resolve. The chapter concludes by suggesting that in his later philosophy Malebranche has more in common with Berkeley than with Cartesian rationalism.Less
In The Search After Truth Malebranche is committed to the Cartesian thesis that the mind has a faculty of pure intellect. In his later philosophy, by contrast, Malebranche comes to abandon the Cartesian thesis in favour of a version of the Augustinian doctrine of divine illumination that has no room for it. This chapter argues that Malebranche’s abandonment of the Cartesian thesis leaves a void in his philosophy that he seeks to fill with the puzzling doctrine of efficacious ideas. It is further argued that this doctrine is subject to at least one difficulty that Malebranche does little to resolve. The chapter concludes by suggesting that in his later philosophy Malebranche has more in common with Berkeley than with Cartesian rationalism.
A. Mark Smith
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226174761
- eISBN:
- 9780226174938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226174938.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the post-Ptolemaic tradition of visual theory within the Late Platonist, or Neoplatonic, tradition between roughly 250 and 550. Marked by an effort to reconcile Platonic and ...
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This chapter examines the post-Ptolemaic tradition of visual theory within the Late Platonist, or Neoplatonic, tradition between roughly 250 and 550. Marked by an effort to reconcile Platonic and Aristotelian thought on a variety of subjects, including perception and cognition, this tradition gave rise to a model of cognition that appealed strongly to eternal Forms, representative mental images, and intellectual illumination, which rendered those images cognitively “visible.” After looking at how this model evolved and how it affected the thought of St. Augustine, the chapter traces its influence on certain Arabic thinkers, such as al-Kindī, Ḥunayn ibn ʾIsḥāq, and al-Fārābī. Among these thinkers, Avicenna assumes pre-eminence for his faculty psychology based on the five internal senses in the brain. The chapter concludes with an examination of the ninth- and tenth-century revival of classical geometrical optics at the hands of al-Kindī, Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā, and Qusṭā ibn Lūqā.Less
This chapter examines the post-Ptolemaic tradition of visual theory within the Late Platonist, or Neoplatonic, tradition between roughly 250 and 550. Marked by an effort to reconcile Platonic and Aristotelian thought on a variety of subjects, including perception and cognition, this tradition gave rise to a model of cognition that appealed strongly to eternal Forms, representative mental images, and intellectual illumination, which rendered those images cognitively “visible.” After looking at how this model evolved and how it affected the thought of St. Augustine, the chapter traces its influence on certain Arabic thinkers, such as al-Kindī, Ḥunayn ibn ʾIsḥāq, and al-Fārābī. Among these thinkers, Avicenna assumes pre-eminence for his faculty psychology based on the five internal senses in the brain. The chapter concludes with an examination of the ninth- and tenth-century revival of classical geometrical optics at the hands of al-Kindī, Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā, and Qusṭā ibn Lūqā.
Thomas Nail
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190908904
- eISBN:
- 9780190908942
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190908904.003.0031
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, International Relations and Politics
This chapter argues that medieval and early modern ontological descriptions made use of a new material technology of inscription with the same tensional regime: the book. Without assuming any direct ...
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This chapter argues that medieval and early modern ontological descriptions made use of a new material technology of inscription with the same tensional regime: the book. Without assuming any direct causation, the following two chapters show a clear similarity of kinetic structure in both theological description and its technology of inscription during this time.
The new kind of kinography that rose to dominance in the West around the fourth and fifth centuries was called “bibliography”. The rise of bibliography, or book writing, functioned according to two major kinographic operations: the binding of the book, and the comprehension (or kinetic tension between author and the reader) of the book. Between the fifth and eighteenth centuries, two major book technologies were used in theological descriptions: the manuscript codex, from the fifth to fifteenth centuries, and the printed codex, from the fifteenth up to the eighteenth century.Less
This chapter argues that medieval and early modern ontological descriptions made use of a new material technology of inscription with the same tensional regime: the book. Without assuming any direct causation, the following two chapters show a clear similarity of kinetic structure in both theological description and its technology of inscription during this time.
The new kind of kinography that rose to dominance in the West around the fourth and fifth centuries was called “bibliography”. The rise of bibliography, or book writing, functioned according to two major kinographic operations: the binding of the book, and the comprehension (or kinetic tension between author and the reader) of the book. Between the fifth and eighteenth centuries, two major book technologies were used in theological descriptions: the manuscript codex, from the fifth to fifteenth centuries, and the printed codex, from the fifteenth up to the eighteenth century.
Tamer Nawar
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- December 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198851059
- eISBN:
- 9780191885785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198851059.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
In his Contra Academicos, Augustine offers one of the most detailed responses to scepticism to have come down to us from antiquity. In this paper, I examine Augustine’s defence of the existence of ...
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In his Contra Academicos, Augustine offers one of the most detailed responses to scepticism to have come down to us from antiquity. In this paper, I examine Augustine’s defence of the existence of infallible knowledge in Contra Academicos 3, focusing on his semantic response to external world scepticism and his appeal to mathematical knowledge to argue against the sceptical thesis that nothing is known. I challenge a number of established views concerning the nature and merit of Augustine’s defence of knowledge and propose a new understanding of several important elements of Augustine’s thought concerning signification, cognition, and object-directed thought. I argue that once we properly understand Augustine’s views on these matters his arguments in defence of knowledge are more interesting and more successful than usually thought.Less
In his Contra Academicos, Augustine offers one of the most detailed responses to scepticism to have come down to us from antiquity. In this paper, I examine Augustine’s defence of the existence of infallible knowledge in Contra Academicos 3, focusing on his semantic response to external world scepticism and his appeal to mathematical knowledge to argue against the sceptical thesis that nothing is known. I challenge a number of established views concerning the nature and merit of Augustine’s defence of knowledge and propose a new understanding of several important elements of Augustine’s thought concerning signification, cognition, and object-directed thought. I argue that once we properly understand Augustine’s views on these matters his arguments in defence of knowledge are more interesting and more successful than usually thought.
