This paper investigates the nature of truth and certainty according to the French Franciscan theologian Peter Auriol (1280-1322). In the first section, I attempt to harmonize a few different sections of Auriol’s Scriptum on book i of the Sentences: the accounts of truth as conformity in question 2 of the Prologue and question 10 of distinction 2, and the account of truth as quiddity in question 3 of distinction 19. In the second section, I explore the notion of certainty in question 1 of the Prologue. Here, Auriol’s taxonomy of propositions is explained, and the difference between scientific certainty and the certitude of faith is outlined. God works in the background in the context of both truth and certainty, and the fact that our cognitive processes are generally trustworthy makes Auriol’s epistemological position into a species of reliabilism.
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See especially R. Pasnau, ‘Henry of Ghent and the Twilight of Divine Illumination’, Review of Metaphysics 49 (September 1995), 49-75. Of course traces of the theory last into the early modern period, as found (e.g.) in Malebranche. But even so, later medieval conceptions of this once central idea gradually erode its centrality.
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This paper investigates the nature of truth and certainty according to the French Franciscan theologian Peter Auriol (1280-1322). In the first section, I attempt to harmonize a few different sections of Auriol’s Scriptum on book i of the Sentences: the accounts of truth as conformity in question 2 of the Prologue and question 10 of distinction 2, and the account of truth as quiddity in question 3 of distinction 19. In the second section, I explore the notion of certainty in question 1 of the Prologue. Here, Auriol’s taxonomy of propositions is explained, and the difference between scientific certainty and the certitude of faith is outlined. God works in the background in the context of both truth and certainty, and the fact that our cognitive processes are generally trustworthy makes Auriol’s epistemological position into a species of reliabilism.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 296 | 49 | 6 |
Full Text Views | 184 | 0 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 60 | 2 | 0 |