Divine illumination

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.

Augustine's theory was defended by Christian philosophers of the later Middle Ages, particularly Franciscans such as Bonaventure and Matthew of Aquasparta.

As Robert Pasnau observes, "Thomas Aquinas is often thought of as the figure most responsible for putting an end to the theory of divine illumination.

Although there is some truth to this view, as we will see, it seems more accurate to regard Aquinas as one of the last defenders of the theory, as a proponent of innate Aristotelian illumination.

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.

[13] Henry's defence of divine illumination was strongly criticised by the Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus, who argued that Henry's version of the theory led to scepticism and presented his own version, according to which there are "four senses in which the human intellect sees infallible truths in the divine light.