Memory, Intellect, and Will: The 13th Century Reception of Augustine – Dr. Albert von Thurn und Taxis

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Religion &Amp; Spirituality, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr. Albert von Thurn und Taxis explores the 13th-century reception of Augustine’s account of memory, intellect, and will, analyzing how medieval philosophers navigated the tension between Augustinian and Aristotelian models of the rational soul.

This lecture was given on June 15th, 2025, at Schloss St. Emmeram.

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About the Speakers:

Dr. Albert von Thurn und Taxis is the twelfth Prince of Thurn und Taxis and the current head of the Princely House. Born in Regensburg in 1983, his academic career reflects a diverse range of studies across economics, theology, and philosophy.

Prince Albert completed his early education in Regensburg and at the German School in Rome. He went on to study economics and theology at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Master of Arts in 2008. He further honed his financial expertise by training as a chartered financial analyst in Zurich from 2008 to 2010. He later returned to Rome to pursue philosophy, earning a doctorate in 2022 from the Pontificia Universitas Studiorum a Sancto Thoma Aquinate in Urbe (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas). His research interests touch on morality and agency, evident in his publication, "John Stuart Mill and the Criterion of Morality: The Good, the Self and the Other" (2011), and his Licentiate Thesis, "Triumph of the Will? Rationality and Freedom in Aquinas' Theory of Agency" (2014).

He is also a member of several other noble and religious orders, including the Royal Order of Saint George for the Defence of the Immaculate Conception (2005) and an honorary knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta (2010).

Keywords:

Albert The Great, Aristotelian Anthropology, Augustinian Triad, Faculty Psychology, Human Rationality, Imago Dei, Medieval Controversies, Memory Intellect And Will, Philosophical Anthropology, Trinitarian Psychology

Transcript

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0:21.8	Please use the link in the episode description below to give today.
0:29.1	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:32.0	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church,
0:36.6	and the wider public square.
0:38.3	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute
0:42.8	chapters around the world.
0:44.7	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at tomistic institute.org.
0:50.0	We are accustomed to understand things with our mind, which we hope to do over the next two days,
0:56.8	but our attention will also be directed towards better understanding the mind itself,
1:03.4	or at least improving our understanding of what key thinkers in late antiquity in the Middle Ages understood the mind to be.
1:13.1	Our specific concern is with the rational soul, particularly with the rational operations
1:19.1	of memory, intellect, and will in the context of a particular period of time, the 13th century,
1:30.3	and with a focus on the Augustinian heritage of this taxonomy, or let's say with the Augustinian spirit of this description of human
1:37.0	rationality, and its reception by 13th century thinkers, especially Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.
1:47.0	So, generically speaking, our theme lies with human rationality and with the specific quality
1:53.0	of this rationality, which, as both ancient philosophy and Christian theology assume,
2:00.0	shares an affinity to or similarity with the divine.
2:06.6	So we are concerned with a group of questions surrounding the meaning of rationality and the description of the rational soul,
2:14.6	which by focusing on Augustine's trinitarian description of the mind,
	...

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