I'll be in God's country--Alaska--all next week, so try not to discuss anything too interesting!
I've been there before and it set my sensus divinitatus into overdrive, so perhaps I'll come back with lots to tell.
That reminds me. I noticed the other day--totally meant to blog it but I forgot--that in Chisholm's 2nd Ed. of Theory of Knowledge when he is discussing the number of epistemic principles--I think he only offers two basic ones there: memory and perception--he notes that some will want fewer--perhaps only a principle of credulity--and some will want more. W.r.t. the latter, he notes that in the Christian tradition some have affirmed the existence of a special faculty to perceive the existence of God.
I don't have the book with me right now, but I think it was either Hugh of St. Victor or perhaps Richard of St. Victor and the term used was "occulis contemplationes," the "eyes of contemplation." If it's either of the St. Victor boys, then that's the earliest explicit reference I know of to such a faculty (although past history makes me think Augustine has said it somewhere).
See you when I get back.
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Technorati Tags: existence of god, st victor, credulity, theory of knowledge, christian tradition, sensus, 2nd ed, chisholm, contemplation, overdrive, affirmed, perceive, perception, explicit, alaska, blog
The tradition of the spiritual senses goes back all the way back to Origen, who wrote about "those divine senses which Scripture calls those of the inner man" in the Commentary on the Song of Songs.
Send an email when you get back because I don't want to stay jealous the rest of the summer.