St. Augustine Accepts Platonic Concept Essay

Augustine’s literary style in Confessions was very effective in relaying his thoughts on evil, redemption, Genesis, and his personal dichotomy between the bible and Neoplatonism. . Though the first nine books are a reflection of his life they are filled with the relationship between his thoughts and actions and his path to redemption and salvation, connecting these with his deep philosophical thoughts in the final books. It was interesting to see how his perspective changed over the course of his life as he began to combine Neoplatonic thought with metaphorical analysis of the bible.

Plato was a philosopher who was born in Athens (470-390 BCE), and was also a student of Socrates. He felt that intelligence and one’s perception belonged to completely independent realms or realities. He believed that general concepts of knowledge were predestined, or placed in the soul before birth even occurred in living things. Plato believed that the cosmos was intelligible, and the the universe was mathematically understandable. He believes that mathematical objects could be seen as perfect forms. Forms, a doctoral of Plato, can be understood as an everyday object or idea, which does not, exists in the everyday realm, but merely is existent in the hypothetical realm or reality.

The final chapter recapitulates the main points of every book and discusses the impossibility and possibility of seeking God from the creation. In this chapter Augustine argues that the image trinity is inadequate but a means of access to communion with God. It is also in this very last chapter that he points out the eternal procession of the Son and the Holy Spirit form the Father.

XII, p. 130). It is obvious from this quote that Augustine now fully subscribes to the idea of only one God, who created “all things.” This differs from Gnostics, who believed in two Gods—one of matter and one of the spirit. This is shown in the Gnostic Gospel of Mary, which states, “Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature” (Mary 4:30). This means that matter and nature are “contrary,” meaning they are two separate things that were created by two different Gods.

St. Augustine is a man with a rational mind. As a philosopher, scholar, and teacher of rhetoric, he is trained in and practices the art of logical thought and coherent reasoning. The pursuits of his life guide him to seek concrete answers to specific questions. Religion, the practice of which relies primarily on faith—occasionally blind faith—presents itself as unable to be penetrated by any sort of scientific study or inquiry. Yet, like a true scientist and philosopher, one of the first questions St. Augustine poses in his Confessions is: “What, then, is the God I worship” (23)? For a long time, Augustine searches for knowledge about God as a physical body, a particular entity—almost as if the Lord

In the early period of Christianity, the influence of Plato's philosophical criticisms of art can be seen in effect in Augustine's view of the imagination as profane. One can question as to whether Augustine's view of original sin would have been so negative if he had not imbibed the Platonic conception of the Fall of the soul. The combination of Biblical and Hellenic elements made Christian philosophy,

Plato, arguably one of the most famous philosophers in history is known for his dialogues and theory of Forms. The theory of Forms argues that ideas (non-physical forms) are more real than tangible objects or what our senses perceive. According to Plato, there is the visible realm and intelligible realm. Reality could be divided into three different levels; the level of appearances, the real level, and the ideal level which he explains through the analogy of the ‘Divided Line’ in The Republic.

Great philosophers over time have shared ideas about their lifetime. There were no more captivating philosophers than Plato and Augustine who fed off one another. Even though they were born at different times, their ideas impacted the life they lived in and future lives. St. Augustine was a student of the wise Plato, who fed off his ideas and created his own form of philosophy. Plato on the other hand orbited the idea of the theory of forms which, later St. Augustine incorporated into his beliefs. St. Augustine used the notion of god to resemble his ideas, as well as Plato’s and a mix of Christianity to incorporate his own knowledge. The philosophical views, the ideas of good and

7.23). St. Augustine is only able to understand the true beauty of God for a brief second because he is weighed down by his body. His main limitation of the body is his sexual desires, which also represents the weakening of the will, derived from his mortality. St. Augustine is aware that he must transcend beyond his sexual desires in order to sustain the true vision of God, but cannot do so for an uninterrupted period of time. St. Augustine’s anagogical ascent as described in his Confessions, begins with him questioning his previous assumptions about the physical beauty of bodies. He questions the truth in these beliefs, and describes that “the unchangeable and authentic eternity of truth transcends my mutable mind” (Conf. 7.23). St. Augustine claims his judgements about the beauty of bodies are transient and are subject to change as his ideas develop. He states that he cannot possibly claim beauty to be one thing, because his idea of beauty and what is beautiful itself changes. There is only one inalterable definition of true beauty, which is God, and St. Augustine cannot label that beauty with his mind which is so prone to change and the deterioration of mortality. This leads him to view not the beauty of

Augustine devotes the first book to his childhood, which leads him to brood on human origin, memory, will and desire. He begins every book with a prayer and in the first book the prayer is particularly extensive. His concerns include how one can seek God without knowing what and who he is. How can one look for something if we don’t really know exactly what we are looking for? This idea serves as a foreshadowing for what is to come at the end of the book; the idea that if one seeks and then has faith in God, he will eventually reveal himself to us. Augustine discusses God’s attributes of asking

Augustine believed that there was a part of oneself that mistakenly thought of things for external significance. Thereofre, in order to change that part of ones self, a person had to shift their consciousness into a deeper place within themselves. Augustine thought of a persons mind and soul as being deformed at first, then shifting to a form of re-formation, while eventually being confirmed in the vision of God. In On the Trinity, the authors stated “Those be not conformed to this World, but be reformed in newness of the mind (Rom 12:2)(Dupré and Weisman 67).” One most covert again to the Lord from this state of being deformed where the Lord has to receive their reformation. Of course, this renewal isn’t something that is created after connecting with the Lord once. Ones process of renewal is gradual and progressive. One most is opened to seeing God and understanding Gods presence in their life. Augustine would agree that to see God was to be transformative. Therefore, to understand God, is to see God, and able to be transformed in

While we as humanity searched for the truth, God was the one shining the light for us to see the path. This is part of what he believed to be “Memoria”, or the information within ourselves that was not the influence of experience. These would include; knowledge of self, truths of reason, ethical truths, values and God himself. (Text) St. Augustine thought that when searching inside of oneself this would eventually lead to a higher elevation of understanding from the physical and self towards the infinite and eternal, then finally, to God which was the greatest of all things. Being that St. Augustine was primarily rationalization and because of his beliefs in God, he claimed that reason could not function properly without faith (Tex). That “Faith seeks, and understanding finds” (Text), for if we have faith we are guided down a path by God 's light so that with reason we can find understanding in our path and purpose. He feels that the evidence of God is in creation but not in our sense perception (Text). That senses and the world can be too changeable to be of any basis for God who is eternal and absolute. From his faith and studies of the Bible, St. Augustine states that we are closer to God than nature because we are made in his image. Next he begins development on his ideas of God 's divine freedom of creation and how everything, including time itself came from nothing other than God 's desire for it to be so. That God in his divinity

This duelist sect believed in the Devine God who was the embodiment of everything good and an equal evil power. They also believed that the flesh was inherently evil. In the next few years after settling his beliefs with Manechaeism and realizing its faults, Augustine would fall into believing in several other non-Christian movements (Brown 31). After being encouraged to do so by many of his friends, he read many of the writings of the Greek philosophers known as neoplatonists. Along with the sermons of Saint Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, these writings convinced Augustine to contemplate his return to the Christian faith. Eventually he overcame his numerous encounters with heresy, and was baptized into the Catholic Church in the year 387 (Brown 43).

Plato was interested in how we can apply a single word or concept to many words or things. For example how can the word house be used for all the individual dwellings that are houses? Plato answered that various things can be called by the same name because they have something in common. He called this common factor the thing’s form or idea. Plato insisted that the forms differ greatly from the ordinary things that we see around us. Ordinary things change but their forms do not. A particular triangle may be altered in size or shape but the form of a triangle can never change. Plato concluded that forms exist neither in space or time. They can be known not only by the intellect but also by the senses. Because of their stability and perfection, the forms have greater reality than ordinary objects observed by the senses. Thus true knowledge is knowledge of the forms.

Forms are necessary or essential properties of a particular or thing. According to Socrates, these forms have properties which give them a certain causal power. Using the concept of Forms, he systematically constructs an argument in an attempt to prove that the soul exists and must always exist. Although, his complete conception of Forms is not captured in the Phaedo, We can still use this dialectic to address his arguments. In this paper, I will attempt to describe the Forms. To do this, I will detail the properties of the Forms and what they are meant to do. Then, I will explain how the concept of the Forms figures into Plato’s/Socrates’ reflections. Socrates uses the concept of forms to construct an argument to conclude that the soul must exist and will always exist necessarily. With this argument in mind I will suggest possible complications that arise from this theory and counterpoints that Socrates could provide.