•  62
    The Conceptual Content of Augustinian Illumination
    Philosophy and Theology 22 (1-2): 3-26. 2010.
    The prevailing interpretation of Augustine’s theory of divine illumination suggests that illumination provides the human mind with the content of our a priori concepts. While there is strong textual evidence to support this view, I contend it offers an incomplete picture of the work illumination does in Augustine’s epistemology. Based on an analysis of Augustine’s solution to the paradox of language acquisition in De magistro, I argue illumination also supplies the mind with the content of all o…Read more
  •  59
    Aquinas on Being and Essence As Proper Objects of the Intellect
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 85 (3): 361-390. 2011.
    This article investigates a tension among Aquinas’s basic claims about what constitutes the proper object of the human intellect. Aquinas asserts that the mindhas only one proper object, yet he repeatedly endorses two different candidates for this role: the being of a thing (ens) and a thing’s essence (essentia). One might assume the tension disappears if ens signifies the essence of a thing. Alternatively, the tension seems to dissolve if each operation of the intellect (apprehension and judgme…Read more
  •  15
    Imaginitive Inventions
    Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 14 (4): 55-73. 2011.
  •  10
    Franciscus and the Young Augustine
    Mediaevalia 31 (1): 53-82. 2010.