Single Idea 22167

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 1. Perception]

Full Idea

Augustine says bodies don't form images in our spirit; our spirit does that itself with amazing quickness. ...So the appearances under which mind knows things aren't drawn from the things themselves.

Gist of Idea

Our images of bodies are not produced by the bodies, but by our own minds

Source

report of Augustine (works [c.415]) by Thomas Aquinas - Quodlibeta 8.2.1

Book Reference

McDermott,Timothy: 'Aquinas: how to read' [Granta 2007], p.7


A Reaction

This is Augustine's theory of 'illumination' - that God creates experience within us. His theory was soon discarded by the early scholastics.