Artículos de investigación

From the "Internal Teacher" to the "Assistant of Reason"

the Magistrates of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas

Authors

Julio A. Castello Dubra Universidad de Buenos Aires ,

The paper deals with the role and limits of teaching in Augustine of Hippo’s dialogue De magistro and the eleventh quaestio of Thomas Aquinas’ Disputed Questions. By exploring the limits of language and communication, Augustine concludes that the teacher does not properly teach, but at most, he reminds the pupil so as he is able to recognize the truth, illuminated by the Inner Teacher. According to Aquinas, instead, the teacher is able to teach in a proper sense, but in doing so, he does nothing but assist the pupil so as he is able to perform, with his own reason, human reason’s very path. Such a path consists in deriving conclusions of science from the principles of human knowledge. Notwithstanding their differences, both reject equating teaching with a mere “transference of knowledge”.

Keywords:

Teacher, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Ilumination, Reason, Humanites

Issue

Published

2022-01-03
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How to Cite

Castello Dubra, J. A. (2022). From the "Internal Teacher" to the "Assistant of Reason": the Magistrates of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. Humanitas Hodie, 5(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.28970/hh.2022.1.a3

Author Biography

Julio A. Castello Dubra, Universidad de Buenos Aires

PhD. in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires, Adjunct Professor of History of Medieval Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the same university, and Adjunct Researcher of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (Argentina). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Argentine Society of Medieval Studies and participates in the Grupo de Trabalho História da Filosofia Medieval e a Recepção da Filosofia Antiga (anpof, Brazil) and the Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios Escotistas y Tardomedievales.