Augustine

Self-Knowledge and God as Other in Augustine

“…91 Menn is «anti-historicist», working within a metaphysical science which «progresses through emulation, criticism, and refinement». 92 He reports that «Gilson and many others think that there is something essentially modern underlying Descartes' whole project of thought, and that this modern orientation excludes any real community of intention between Cartesian and pre-modern metaphysics»; although the others include Heidegger and Husserl, Menn «can find no truth in any of this», for having examined Descartes' sources, he can discover no «incommensurability between Descartes' <modern> metaphysical project and the <pre-modern> projects of his predecessors». 93 Menn finds continuity at the very points where the postmodern Christians place the gaps.…”

“…94 sian «doctrines of faith are the same; and naturally so, since Descartes' doctrine of faith is a consequence of his adoption of the Augustinian doctrine of the free exercise of will in judgment». 97 For both, «some truths are to be accepted on faith», but also, for both, we «are to press on toward knowledge». 98 In this schema, the character of Augustinian sapientia and its relation to the spiritual itinerarium of Plotinus become the heart of the matter.…”

“…97 For both, «some truths are to be accepted on faith», but also, for both, we «are to press on toward knowledge». 98 In this schema, the character of Augustinian sapientia and its relation to the spiritual itinerarium of Plotinus become the heart of the matter.…”

“…Menn maintains that Augustine took over «a discipline of intellectual contemplation, understandings of soul and Nous and of the origin of evil ... and ... the essential difference between the soul and God (= Nous)». 103 Since for both Descartes and Augustine the central problem in coming to their intellectual positions is getting free from the corporeal, Menn's Augustine is found in the Plotinian criticism of Stoicism and the Augustinian escape from Manicheism. 104 Menn stresses, however, that for both Plotinus and Augustine, the thesis that «the principles of physical things are incorporeal» is not just negative and, thus, compatible with a skepticism about our grasp of «positive metaphysical knowledge».…”

“…104 Menn stresses, however, that for both Plotinus and Augustine, the thesis that «the principles of physical things are incorporeal» is not just negative and, thus, compatible with a skepticism about our grasp of «positive metaphysical knowledge». 105 Menn thinks that Augustine followed Plotinus in a «moral and intellectual discipline» enabling him to come to <see> God and the other principles of corporeal things with the mind, 106 that these belong to Augustinian sapientia and that Descartes followed Augustine in the same discipline to the same intuitions.…”