ABSTRACT
This essay discusses the nature and role of self-knowledge in Teresa de Ávila’s masterwork, Castillo Interior (Inner Castle). In particular, it argues for a close connection between self-knowledge and normativity, such that answering the question “Who am I?” guides normative behavior and justification of that behavior. Teresa de Ávila’s treatment of self-knowledge is contrasted with both Plato and Descartes’s own accounts, and it is shown that, for Teresa de Ávila, self-knowledge is also closely connected to the love of God and others.
