PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nejeschleba, Tomáš
TI  - Theory of Knowledge According to St. Bonaventure
DP  - 2017 Sep 30
TA  - Aither
PG  - 40--57
VI  - 9
IP  - 2
AID - 10.5507/aither.2017.007
IS  - 18037879
AB  - The article deals with St. Bonaventure's reception of Aristotelianism in the theory of knowledge. It focuses on both sensual and intellectual cognition and reconstructs the main features of St. Bonaventure's epistemology. While in the realm of senses Bonaventure follows mainly Aristotle as a master of knowledge, in the realm of intellect he is mostly depended on Plato, as the master of wisdom, and St. Augustine. However, the sensual cognition is in Bonaventure influenced by Augustinianism, and intellectual cognition is described with the help of Aristotelian terminology. Bonaventure tries to harmonize both traditions. On the one hand he accepts the necessity of senses for cognition. On the other hand, he emphasises the unchangeability of the object of cognition by means of exemplarism and the infallibility of the cognizing subject by means illuminism. Bonaventure's approach is motivated by theology. Philosophy is according to him inseparable from theology, which therefore must have a crucial impact on philosophical thought.