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Which thinker was most influenced by Augustine's philosophy?

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Final answer:

Thomas Aquinas is the thinker most influenced by Augustine's philosophy, integrating Augustinian thought with Aristotelian methods in his Scholastic work. Bonaventure also fused Augustine's ideas with those of Aristotle, particularly in the realm of knowledge acquisition.

Step-by-step explanation:

The thinker most influenced by Augustine's philosophy was Thomas Aquinas. His work in the realm of Scholastic philosophy extended many ideas first formulated by Augustine, especially in the domains of theology, the nature of knowledge, and the interplay between faith and reason.Thomas Aquinas synthesized Augustine's religious insights with Aristotelian philosophy, laying down a foundational approach for medieval Christian thought and influencing countless generations thereafter. Aquinas viewed Augustine's works as a critical source of Christian doctrine and directly engaged with Augustinian concepts throughout his own philosophical and theological treatises.

Aquinas' attempts to reconcile faith with reason and his discussions on the existence of God draw heavily from Augustinian thought.In particular, Bonaventure, another scholastic philosopher who became the Minister-General of the Franciscan Order, was deeply influenced by Augustine. He combined Augustine's ideas on the illumination of the soul and divine grace with the logical rigor of Aristotelian thought. Bonaventure held that while knowledge of the world comes from sensory experience, certainty about this knowledge is achieved through an Augustinian process of inner reflection, echoing Augustine's significance in the realms of metaphysics and epistemology.

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