Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 AD - 430 AD) was a philosopher and Christian theologian recognized for his influential role in Catholicism and Western philosophy (Cajal, 2018). His thoughts and writings played a crucial role in the consolidation of Christianity after the fall of the Roman Empire. He is often credited with the title of the father of Eastern Orthodox theology and the most prominent of the four fathers of the Latin Church (Cajal, 2018). In correspondence with Tornau (2019), contemporary philosophers continue to be fascinated by St. Augustine's innovative ideas on language, skepticism, knowledge, will, emotions, freedom, determinism, and the structure of the human mind, and last but not least, his approach to philosophy.
Biography
Augustine of Hippo, originally known as Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, was born on November 13th, 354 AD, in Tagaste, a Roman province in North Africa (O'Donnell, 2021). Tagaste was a humble Roman community situated in the valley of a river, 64 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast of Africa (O'Donnell, 2021). His name derived from Latin, meaning "the revered one" (Cajal, 2018). He was the son of Monica, of Berber descent and a devout Catholic (Guzman, n.d.). When Monica was young, she chose not to marry and dedicated her life to prayer (Cajal, 2018). However, her family arranged for her to marry a man named Patricius, a descendant of the pagan faith (Guzman, n.d.). According to Cajal (2018), Patricius was hardworking but not religious, enjoying festivities and casual sex.
His parents belonged to the respectable class of Roman society, managing their resources to provide him with a first-class education, despite sometimes limited means (O'Donnell, 2021). Although he had at least one brother and one sister, he seems to have been the only child sent for education (O'Donnell, 2021). At the age of 11, he was sent to a school in southern Tagaste, where he stayed until the age of 17, when he began his training in rhetoric (Guzman, n.d.). After this stage, he left the Church to follow Manichaeism, a religion influenced by the Persian prophet Mani (Guzman, n.d.). Although possibly active as a Manichaean apologist and missionary, he never became one of the sect's chosen, committed to asceticism and sexual abstinence (Tornau, 2019). According to Cajal (2018), upon returning home from vacation to tell his mother about this, she expelled him because he did not accept his departure from Christianity.
Soon after, he formed a family with the woman who was his partner for 15 years (Guzman, n.d.). With her, he had his only son named Adeodatus, who was baptized along with his father in Milan and died shortly after at the age of 18 (Tornau, 2019). In the year 383, he moved to Rome, continuing his studies in rhetoric, philosophy, persuasion, and oratory (Guzman, n.d.). While in Rome, he fell ill and was bedridden (Cajal, 2018). After recovering, the governor of Rome and his personal friend, Symmachus, intervened for him to be appointed magistrate in the present city of Milan. During this time, he still adhered to Manichaean philosophy but began associating with the bishop of Milan, Ambrose. According to Cajal (2018), through the intervention of his mother, who was already in Milan, he participated in the lectures of Bishop Ambrose, which made him listen and admire the role.
Through Bishop Ambrose, he became acquainted with the teachings of the Greek Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus and the writings of Paul of Tarsus (Cajal, 2018). In the summer of the year 386, after a profound personal crisis detailed in his famous work, "Confessions," he finally converted to Christianity (Guzman, n.d.). He abandoned rhetoric and science, renounced marital ties, and devoted himself to the priesthood (Guzman, n.d.). Later, he moved with his mother to Cassiciaco, a city near Milan, engaging in meditation (Cajal, 2018). According to Tornau (2019), after a winter of philosophical leisure on the rural estate of Cassiciacum near Milan, he was baptized by Bishop Ambrose on Easter of the year 387 and returned to Africa, accompanied by his son, some friends, and his mother, who died during the journey.
Subsequently, he returned to North Africa and founded a monastery (Guzman, n.d.). In the year 391, he was ordained as a priest in the city of Hippo, now Annaba, Algeria. From there, he became known as Augustine of Hippo and soon gained recognition as a great preacher (Guzman, n.d.). Although it is said that he did not desire this appointment, he eventually accepted it, the same happening when he was appointed bishop in the year 395. He passed away in the year 430, probably on August 28th, at the age of 75; after his appointment as bishop and "patron of the regular clergy" (Cajal, 2018; Guzman, n.d.). According to Guzman (n.d.), while the exact causes of his death are unknown, it is known to have occurred in the context of the Vandal invasion of the Roman province of Africa by Genseric.
Theory of Knowledge
Augustine's theory of knowledge, also known as the doctrine of illumination, represents a non-empiricist epistemology grounded in a Neoplatonic interpretation of Plato's doctrine of recollection (Tornau, 2019). Augustine argues that genuine knowledge requires direct experience; second-hand information, such as reliable testimony, may generate true and justifiable belief but does not constitute knowledge in the strict sense. In the case of sensible objects, such first-hand knowledge is possible through sensory perception. However, according to Tornau (2019), knowledge of intelligible objects cannot be empirically obtained through abstraction or linguistically transmitted by a human instructor; instead, it demands personal intellectual activity culminating in intellectual intuition, evaluated by a criterion intrinsic to each individual and not present anywhere else.
The paradigm of this kind of cognition encompasses mathematical and logical truths, as well as fundamental moral intuitions, understood not through faith in a teacher or text but directly perceived (Tornau, 2019). The condition and criterion of truth for this intellectual intuition reside in God, conceived as a Neoplatonic immaterial principle, immanent and transcendent with respect to the soul. Similarly, Augustine argues that attaining this truth involves introspection, through what he calls reason or the soul, whose essence is God. In other words, the senses are not a means of grasping the truth of things (Tornau, 2019). The senses do not constitute a medium for understanding truth because, according to Cajal (2018), what is obtained through them lacks permanence and transcendence, and therefore, it is not transcendental knowledge.
As a result, Augustine identifies three main levels of understanding: sensations, rational knowledge, and wisdom itself (Cajal, 2018). Sensations represent the most primitive way of approaching truth and reality, shared with animals. Rational knowledge occupies an intermediate position and relates to the implementation of thoughts. Through sensibility, humans gain knowledge of sensible objects, but the mind allows them to analyze them from eternal and non-corporeal perspectives. Finally, wisdom involves the human capacity to acquire eternal, transcendent, and valuable knowledge without depending on the senses. Instead of using the senses, individuals reach knowledge through introspection and the search for internal truth, personified by God. For Augustine, according to Cajal (2018), God constitutes the foundation of all models and standards, as well as all ideas that emerge in the world.
The Rational Soul
Saint Augustine of Hippo postulated that God created the soul, being the only being capable of giving life to other beings and forming creation, which includes the earth, the sea, plants, animals, and other beings (Rey, 2012). From Plato's perspective, the body and soul are complete and separate substances; their union is accidental: man is a rational and immortal soul that uses a material and mortal body as an instrument (Ruiza, Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). The soul, endowed with will, memory, and intelligence, is a simple and indivisible spiritual substance, qualities from which it derives its immortality, as, for Augustine, death is the decomposition of the parts (Ruiza, Fernández & Tamaro, 2004). In short, in correspondence with Rey (2012), the soul of Saint Augustine is the spiritual substance of man, connected to the body and the means by which man transcends.
However, Augustine established that only the rational soul can attain this knowledge (Cajal, 2018). This conception of the nature of rationality reflects his recognition of the importance of reason and his conviction that this faculty does not conflict with faith. According to Cajal (2018), Augustine goes further to argue that the soul must be motivated by love for truth and God to access true knowledge.
The Dualism of Memory
Augustine of Hippo and his mother, Saint Monica, according to Johann Dréo de Chartres, maintained that memory represented the most crucial aspect of the mind as it was the root of psychological functioning (Shuttleworth, 2011). Similarly, they conceived of memory as the internal space where humans stored all the information they could apprehend, organizing it in an orderly and successive manner according to the temporal occurrence of events (Rey, 2012). Consequently, they argued that all skills and habits emanated from memory, proposing that even animals must possess the ability to remember for their functioning (Shuttleworth, 2011). They proposed a dual memory, distinguishing between recognition and recollection. According to Shuttleworth (2011), humans only remember the images of things in sensory memory, although the maturity of these images fades in affective memory.
This dual memory was based on the principle that a retrieved memory was different from the original (Shuttleworth, 2011). For example, the recall of an event did not necessarily entail the same emotions felt at that moment; therefore, recognition and recollection were different processes. They further developed this duality by recognizing that the processes behind memory were extremely complex; some things were easily remembered, others required a small effort, and some refused to appear. Moreover, according to Shuttleworth (2011), some memories were orderly and sequential, while others were disorganized and overwhelming.
They even pondered the paradox of forgetting: if something was forgotten but later remembered, how did one know it was knowledge they possessed but had forgotten? To overcome this paradox, Saint Augustine of Hippo added that there must be a memory for forgotten things that worked in conjunction with memory (Shuttleworth, 2011). Finally, in correspondence with Shuttleworth (2011), Saint Augustine of Hippo considered that humans were born with some innate knowledge, although he rejected the idea of carrying knowledge from previous existences, as it did not align with his theological worldview.
Language Learning
Augustine's language philosophy is influenced by the Hellenistic and Roman grammatical theories of the Stoics (Tornau, 2019). He follows the Stoics in distinguishing between the sound of a word and its meaning but stands out as a pioneer in interpreting language as a system of signs, integrating it into a general semiotics (Tornau, 2019). He reflects on human language, addressing how children learn to speak through their environment and association (Cajal, 2018). He argues that speech's primary purpose is to teach; by asking questions, even about the unknown, it allows individuals to reflect and freely express their viewpoints. Augustine emphasizes that language is taught and learned through memory, which is stored in the soul and externalized through thought to communicate with others. According to Cajal (2018), he highlighted that the sentence was a method of communication stored in the soul and only served to communicate directly with God, to soothe concerns and kindle hope.
Dreams
Saint Augustine of Hippo examined the nature of dreams and acknowledged that thoughts and impulses suppressed while awake can manifest extremely strongly in dreams (Shuttleworth, 2011). Similarly, he argued that there is no sin in dreams, so they should not affect a Christian's conscience; however, he also pointed out that past experiences can emerge in dreams. Finally, in correspondence with Shuttleworth (2011), Saint Augustine of Hippo concluded that memory could remain buried in the unconscious mind and resurface in dreams, where it would not be subject to the moderation of thought or reason.
Predestination and Inner Confusion
Saint Augustine of Hippo upheld the belief in free will, proposing that it was at the center of human nature and that each individual had the freedom to choose to obey or deviate from God's plans (Shuttleworth, 2011). In other words, he asserted that a person has control over their thoughts and, therefore, can choose to exercise willpower and self-discipline or succumb to carnal desires that go against the spirit. He proposed that all individuals had an internal struggle, a battle of the inner self against God, and he extrapolated this to suggest that the struggles and chaos in the surrounding world were also manifestations of this particular conflict. For him, in accordance with Shuttleworth (2011), character flaws and defense mechanisms fueled the internal confusion between what is expected of a human being and how they actually behave.
On the other hand, Saint Augustine of Hippo placed love at the center of the pursuit of happiness (Shuttleworth, 2011). He argued that desire led to disorder and, consequently, to suffering. He exemplified that the longing for something unattainable feeds internal distress. However, in accordance with Shuttleworth (2011), Augustine posited that the key to remedying this suffering lay in the development of unconditional love, capable of reorganizing the mind.
Gender, Women and Sexuality
Misogyny is uncommon in Augustine; however, he developed in a society influenced by Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions that upheld the subordination of women to men (Tornau, 2019). His interpretation of the Genesis narrative emphasizes Eve's subordination to Adam, created as his helper and for the purpose of reproduction. He argues that, under the conditions of fallen humanity, marriage becomes a kind of slavery for wives, who must accept it with obedience and humility. In his initial anti-Manichaean exegesis of Genesis, he allegorizes man as the rational and woman as the non-rational and appetitive parts of the soul. However, according to Tornau (2019), he insists that the meaning of the Genesis story was not purely allegorical; sexual differentiation had begun in paradise and would persist in the resurrected bodies of the blessed, being a natural part of God's creation.
Following the Greek philosophical conviction that the soul, especially its highest intellectual part, has no gender, Augustine argues that the words of Genesis about humans created in the image of God imply that woman is as human as man since she has an intellectual soul. It is not the body but the intellectual soul that makes humans an image of God (Tornau, 2019). Similarly, according to Tornau (2019), Augustine compares man to theoretical reason and woman to practical reason, stating that while theoretical and practical reason together, or reason as a whole, is an image of God, practical reason alone, directed towards corporeal things and assisting theoretical reason, is not.
Augustine's views on sexuality are more prominent in his anti-Pelagian treatises, where he develops a theory about the transmission of original sin from the first couple in paradise to every human being born since then, making sexual concupiscence the main factor in the process (Tornau, 2019). In Augustine's ethics, concupiscence does not have a specifically sexual meaning but is a general term encompassing all volitions or intentions opposed to proper love. The transgression of Adam and Eve did not consist of sexual concupiscence but in their disobedience, rooted in pride, akin to the primal sin of evil angels. According to Tornau (2019), due to this disobedience, they and all of humanity were punished with the inability to fully control their own appetites and volitions, a permanent acratic state marking fallen humanity.
The inability of humans to control their sexual desires and even their sexual organs is just one particularly evident example (Tornau, 2019). Unlike most earlier Christian writers, Tornau (2019) notes that Augustine believed there were sexual relations in paradise, and procreation would have occurred even without the fall. He did not share the encratite ideas of some ascetic circles that sought to compensate for the first sin through sexual abstinence, and he had comparatively moderate views on virginity and sexual continence.
However, he thought that Adam and Eve had been able to voluntarily control their sexual organs to limit their use to the natural purpose of procreation; in paradise, there was sexuality but no concupiscence (Tornau, 2019). According to Tornau (2019), original sin had destroyed this ideal state, and since then, sexual concupiscence is an inevitable concomitant of procreation, an evil that can be harnessed in legitimate marriage, where the purpose of sexual relations was the procreation of children rather than bodily pleasure. Still, it subjects every newborn human to the dominion of the devil, from which they need to be liberated through baptism.
Writtings
Confessions
In this work, Saint Augustine declares love for God through love for his own soul, which essentially represents God (Cajal, 2018). The Confessions consist of 13 books, most of which are autobiographical narratives (Guzman, n.d.). Saint Augustine chose to name his work "Confessions" not only for this reason but also for the religious significance of confession (Guzman, n.d.). According to O'Donnell (2021), the dichotomy between the past odyssey and the current position of authority as a bishop is emphasized in various ways in the book, among other things, because what begins as a narration of childhood ends with an extensive and highly ecclesiastical discussion of the Book of Genesis; the progression is from the beginnings of a man's life to the beginnings of human society.
It addresses topics such as contradictions between his past and later authoritative positions as a bishop (Guzman, n.d.). It also discusses the nature of sin and redemption, revealing the influence of Saint Ambrose on the thinking of Saint Augustine of Hippo, as well as the teachings of Plato. Finally, according to Guzman (n.d.), it talks about renouncing sexuality after ordination to the priesthood, the search for divine wisdom, and the mystical experience he had in Milan, which ultimately led him to choose the Catholic life.
The City of God
The original title of this book was "The City of God Against the Pagans" (Cajal, 2018). In the context of armed and political conflicts between Africa and Italy, as well as in a religious environment constantly confronted with paganism, Augustine worked for 15 years on a new way of understanding human society (Guzman, n.d.). For the philosopher, it was necessary to build a city of God capable of opposing the city of man. The latter was condemned to disorder, so it was important for the wise to advocate for a city based on divinity (Guzman, n.d.). The work is divided into 22 books (O'Donnell, 2021). The first 10 refute the divine power claims of various pagan communities, and the last 12 narrate the biblical history of humanity from Genesis to the Final Judgment, offering what Augustine presents as the true story of the City of God (O'Donnell, 2021). In short, according to Guzman (n.d.), Augustine tried to present a real history of the City of God.
Reconsiderations
This work was written in the last years of his life and offers a retrospective look at the career of Saint Augustine (Guzman, n.d.). In form, the book is a catalog of his writings with comments on the circumstances of their composition and with retractions or reconsiderations he would make in retrospect (O'Donnell, 2021). Therefore, its title precisely reflects the exercise of self-analysis that Saint Augustine undertakes (Guzman, n.d.). It is a writing that deeply expresses the thoughts and life of this philosopher (Guzman, n.d.). Consequently, in correspondence with Cajal (2018), scholars of the work of Saint Augustine of Hippo have indicated that this somewhat compilatory work is very beneficial for fully understanding how his thinking evolved.
References
Cajal, A. (2018). San Agustín de Hipona: Biografía, Filosofía y Aportes. Lifeder. Recuperado 12 July 2021, a partir de https://www.lifeder.com/aportaciones-de-san-agustin/
Guzmán, G. San Agustín de Hipona: biografía de este filósofo y sacerdote. Psicologiaymente.com. Recuperado 12 July 2021, a partir de https://psicologiaymente.com/biografias/san-agustin-de-hipona
O´Donnell, J. (2021). Saint Augustine | Biography, Philosophy, Major Works, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Recuperado 12 July 2021, a partir de https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Augustine
Rey, L. (2012). EL CONCEPTO DE HOMBRE EN LAS “CONFESIONES” DE SAN AGUSTIN. Tangara.uis.edu.co. Recuperado 2 August 2021, a partir de http://tangara.uis.edu.co/biblioweb/tesis/2012/144359.pdf
Ruiza, M., Fernández, T., & Tamaro, E. (2004). Biografia de San Agustín. Biografiasyvidas.com. Recuperado 12 July 2021, a partir de https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/a/agustin.htm
Shuttleworth, M. (2011). Psychology in the Middle Ages - St Augustine (354-430 CE). Explorable.com. Recuperado 12 July 2021, a partir de https://explorable.com/middle-age-psychology-st-augustine
Tornau, C. (2019). Saint Augustine. Plato.stanford.edu. Recuperado 12 July 2021, a partir de https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/augustine/
