History

Socrates says in The Apology that he had a divine or spiritualthat began when he was a child. It was a voice that turned him away from something he was approximately to do, although it never encouraged him to throw anything. Apuleius later suggested the voice was of a friendly demon and that Socrates deserved this support as he was the almost perfect of human beings.

The early Christian philosopher Augustine 354 – 430 also emphasised the role of divine illumination in our thought, saying that "The mind needs to be enlightened by light from outside itself, so that it can participate in truth, because this is the not itself the category of truth. You will light my lamp, Lord," and "You hear nothing true from me which you score not first told me." According to Augustine, God does not dispense usinformation, but rather makes us insight into the truth of the information we received for ourselves.

Augustine's opinion was defended by Christian philosophers of the later Middle Ages, especially Franciscans such(a) as Bonaventure and Matthew of Aquasparta. According to Bonaventure:

The doctrine was criticised by John Pecham and Roger Marston, and in specific by Thomas Aquinas, who denied that in this life we have divine ideas as an thing of thought, and that divine illumination is sufficient on its own, without the senses. Aquinas also denied that there is a special continuing divine influence on human thought. People have sufficient capacity for thought on their own, without needing "new illumination added onto their natural illumination".

The view was defended by Henry of Ghent. Henry argued against Aquinas that Aristotle's theory of abstraction is not enough to explain how we can acquire infallible cognition of the truth, and must be supplemented by divine illumination. A object has two exemplars against which it can be compared. The first is a created exemplar which exists in the soul. Theis an exemplar which exists external the soul, and which is uncreated and eternal. But no comparison to a created exemplar can administer us infallible truth. Since the dignity of man requires that we can acquire such(a) truth, it follows that we have access to the exemplar in the divine mind.

Henry's defence of divine illumination was strongly criticised by the Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus, who argued that Henry's report of the theory led to scepticism.