History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps HoP 242 - Therese Cory on Self-Awareness in Albert and Aquinas
Dec 6, 2015
Therese Cory, a philosopher specialized in the thoughts of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, discusses self-awareness in medieval philosophy. The podcast explores the concept of self-awareness and its challenges, including understanding motivations and emotions. It also delves into Augustine's perspective on the paradox of self-awareness and explores the origins of self-awareness in medieval philosophy. The podcast compares the ideas of Avicenna, Albert, and Aquinas on self-awareness and highlights the differences between Aquinas and Albert's views on super conscious self-awareness and empiricism.
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Self-Awareness Comes In Degrees
- Self-awareness ranges from a faint "halo" to intense self-consciousness in everyday experience.
- Terese Cory stresses that first-person content can be present at different attention levels.
Augustine's Self-Knowing Paradox
- Augustine inspired a paradox: you're closest to yourself yet often obscure to yourself.
- Cory explains Augustine's move that the soul might be super-consciously self-knowing but needs attention to make that knowledge conscious.
Avicenna's Flying Man Example
- Avicenna's "flying man" imagines a person with no sensory input who still knows they exist.
- Cory says this image catalyzed medieval debates about innate self-knowledge.