Aquinas and the Divine Ideas of Singulars

Abstract

In the present paper we analyse several texts by Aquinas concerningboth his theory of divine knowledge and the doctrine of ideas in order to showhow two recent interpretations given by contemporary scholars are not backed upby a rigorous examination of the relevant texts. According to a first, less radicalreading there are distinct practical ideias for each particular thing, whereas amore radical interpretation holds that ideas, in the strict sense of the term, areprimarily ideas of individuals. Our goal is to show that, although Aquinas claimsthat God knows everything, including particulars, the doctrine of ideas as heconceives of it is too narrow to alllow his Aristotelian convictions regarding theknowability of particulars to fully express themselves.