Medieval Philosophy

by Peter S. Adamson

There’s a parallel here to the Augustinian theory of knowledge. We’ve seen how medieval proponents of the “illumination” theory argued, again following Augustine, that God must be somehow involved every time a human achieves genuine understanding. Likewise, on the ethical front, divine help was needed if humans were to be capable of genuine goodness. It was often said that virtue is “infused” into the human by God, much as the mind is illuminated with knowledge by the divine light. A good example is Philip the Chancellor, whose ethical views we discussed in Chapter 26. He shows his Augustinian credentials by suggesting that all real virtues come from God. Natural “virtue” such as was possessed by the pagans would not be virtue in the true sense of the word.3 Philip also calls this natural kind of moral excellence “political” virtue because it is expressed in our this-worldly life and in our dealings