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Bodily Motions and Religious Feelings
- Gareth B. Matthews
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- Journal:
- Canadian Journal of Philosophy / Volume 1 / Issue 1 / September 1971
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- 01 January 2020, pp. 75-86
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For when men pray they do with the members of their bodies what befits suppliants—when they bend their knees and stretch out their hands, or even prostrate themselves, and whatever else they do visibly, although their invisible will and the intention of their heart is known to God. Nor does He need these signs for the human mind to be laid bare to Him. But in this way a man excites himself to pray more and to groan more humbly and more fervently. I do not know how it is that, although these motions of the body cannot come to be without a motion of the mind preceding them, when they have been made, visibly and externally, that invisible inner motion which caused them is itself strengthened. And in this manner the disposition of the heart which preceded them in order that they might be made, grows stronger because they are made. Of course if someone is constrained or even bound, so that he cannot do these things with his limbs, it does not follow that, when he is stricken with remorse, the inner man does not pray and prostrate himself before the eyes of God in his most secret chamber.
(Augustine: De cura pro mortuis 5.7)
One smiles and tells the expert chef how good the sauce béarnaise is, not so much to inform him about the sauce (he knows better than we do how good it is) as to assure him that we are enjoying it and that we appreciate his efforts. But when a man kneels in his pew and repeats a litany of thanksgiving it is not, it seems, that he means to be informing God of anything—not even of his thankfulness. For God, unlike the chef, has no need of information.
Sensation and Synecdoche
- Gareth B. Matthews
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- Journal:
- Canadian Journal of Philosophy / Volume 2 / Issue 1 / September 1972
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 January 2020, pp. 105-116
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Sometimes in THE CONCEPT OF MIND Gilbert Ryle describes what he is up to in a way which is quite unhelpful. The following passage will serve as an example of what I mean:
To talk of a person’s mind is not to talk of a repository which is permitted to house objects that something called ‘the physical world’ is forbidden to house; it is to talk of the person’s abilities, liabilities and inclinations to do and undergo certain sorts of things, and of the doing and undergoing of these things in the ordinary world, (p. 199)
I call this passage unhelpful because it commits the fallacy of false alternatives. It would have us think that talk of a person's mind is either (1) talk of a special non-physical repository or else (2) talk of a person's abilities, liabilities, inclinations, etc.—but not both. Yet surely talk of the mind as a non-physical repository might be one way of talking about a person's abilities, liabilities, inclinations, etc.
Perhaps what Ryle should have said is that to speak of the mind as a non-physical repository that houses special, mental objects is a figurative way of putting what could be reported literally in talk of a person’s abilities, liabilities, inclinations, etc. Certainly that is a point Ryle tries to make in his book. Indeed it is a major burden of THE CONCEPT OF MIND to identify and analyze those figures of speech, or tropes, in which mental activities and capacities are commonly reported and described. The idea seems to be that we are misled philosophically by our failure to recognize the tropological character of what we commonly say about the mind and by our naivete as to how the tropes work.
7 - Augustinianism
- from I - Fundamentals
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- By Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts
- Edited by Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado Boulder
- Edited in association with Christina van Dyke, Calvin College, Michigan
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- The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy
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- 05 August 2014
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- 19 June 2014, pp 86-98
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Summary
St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was both a theologian of great influence and a philosopher of remarkable originality. He helped shape Christian orthodoxy by identifying the Christian heresies of Pelagianism, Manicheanism, and Donatism, the first two of which have special philosophical interest. Pelagianism, as captured by the maxim philosophers associate with Kant, ‘Ought implies can,’ stakes out a plausible limit on moral responsibility. Augustine’s idea that human beings are obligated to obey the moral law despite the fact that, after the fall of Adam, they have been in a state of depravity in which they can do no good apart from the grace of God, poses a direct challenge to this plausible limit on moral responsibility (see Chapter 29). Augustine also sought to refute Manicheanism, according to which there is a cosmic principle of evil and darkness coeval with the principle of goodness and light. In responding to this attractive way of thinking about the origin of evil in the world, Augustine came up with several responses to the problem of evil, responses that directly influenced medieval discussions of the topic.
In writing no fewer than five detailed commentaries on the creation story in the biblical book of Genesis, Augustine did perhaps as much as any philosopher has done to try to make sense of the idea that God created the world out of nothing. Indeed, in the thirteenth-century debate on whether the world is eternal Augustine’s view of ex nihilo creation became the antipode to the Aristotelian view that the world had no beginning (see Chapter 17).
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- By Frank Andrasik, Melissa R. Andrews, Ana Inés Ansaldo, Evangelos G. Antzoulatos, Lianhua Bai, Ellen Barrett, Linamara Battistella, Nicolas Bayle, Michael S. Beattie, Peter J. Beek, Serafin Beer, Heinrich Binder, Claire Bindschaedler, Sarah Blanton, Tasia Bobish, Michael L. Boninger, Joseph F. Bonner, Chadwick B. Boulay, Vanessa S. Boyce, Anna-Katharine Brem, Jacqueline C. Bresnahan, Floor E. Buma, Mary Bartlett Bunge, John H. Byrne, Jeffrey R. Capadona, Stefano F. Cappa, Diana D. Cardenas, Leeanne M. Carey, S. Thomas Carmichael, Glauco A. P. Caurin, Pablo Celnik, Kimberly M. Christian, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo G. Cohen, Adriana B. Conforto, Rory A. Cooper, Rosemarie Cooper, Steven C. Cramer, Armin Curt, Mark D’Esposito, Matthew B. Dalva, Gavriel David, Brandon Delia, Wenbin Deng, Volker Dietz, Bruce H. Dobkin, Marco Domeniconi, Edith Durand, Tracey Vause Earland, Georg Ebersbach, Jonathan J. Evans, James W. Fawcett, Uri Feintuch, Toby A. Ferguson, Marie T. Filbin, Diasinou Fioravante, Itzhak Fischer, Agnes Floel, Herta Flor, Karim Fouad, Richard S. J. Frackowiak, Peter H. Gorman, Thomas W. Gould, Jean-Michel Gracies, Amparo Gutierrez, Kurt Haas, C.D. Hall, Hans-Peter Hartung, Zhigang He, Jordan Hecker, Susan J. Herdman, Seth Herman, Leigh R. Hochberg, Ahmet Höke, Fay B. Horak, Jared C. Horvath, Richard L. Huganir, Friedhelm C. Hummel, Beata Jarosiewicz, Frances E. Jensen, Michael Jöbges, Larry M. Jordan, Jon H. Kaas, Andres M. Kanner, Noomi Katz, Matthew S. Kayser, Annmarie Kelleher, Gerd Kempermann, Timothy E. Kennedy, Jürg Kesselring, Fary Khan, Rachel Kizony, Jeffery D. Kocsis, Boudewijn J. Kollen, Hubertus Köller, John W. Krakauer, Hermano I. Krebs, Gert Kwakkel, Bradley Lang, Catherine E. Lang, Helmar C. Lehmann, Angelo C. Lepore, Glenn S. Le Prell, Mindy F. Levin, Joel M. Levine, David A. Low, Marilyn MacKay-Lyons, Jeffrey D. Macklis, Margaret Mak, Francine Malouin, William C. Mann, Paul D. Marasco, Christopher J. Mathias, Laura McClure, Jan Mehrholz, Lorne M. Mendell, Robert H. Miller, Carol Milligan, Beth Mineo, Simon W. Moore, Jennifer Morgan, Charbel E-H. Moussa, Martin Munz, Randolph J. Nudo, Joseph J. Pancrazio, Theresa Pape, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Kristin M. Pearson-Fuhrhop, P. Hunter Peckham, Tamara L. Pelleshi, Catherine Verrier Piersol, Thomas Platz, Marcus Pohl, Dejan B. Popović, Andrew M. Poulos, Maulik Purohit, Hui-Xin Qi, Debbie Rand, Mahendra S. Rao, Josef P. Rauschecker, Aimee Reiss, Carol L. Richards, Keith M. Robinson, Melvyn Roerdink, John C. Rosenbek, Serge Rossignol, Edward S. Ruthazer, Arash Sahraie, Krishnankutty Sathian, Marc H. Schieber, Brian J. Schmidt, Michael E. Selzer, Mijail D. Serruya, Himanshu Sharma, Michael Shifman, Jerry Silver, Thomas Sinkjær, George M. Smith, Young-Jin Son, Tim Spencer, John D. Steeves, Oswald Steward, Sheela Stuart, Austin J. Sumner, Chin Lik Tan, Robert W. Teasell, Gareth Thomas, Aiko K. Thompson, Richard F. Thompson, Wesley J. Thompson, Erika Timar, Ceri T. Trevethan, Christopher Trimby, Gary R. Turner, Mark H. Tuszynski, Erna A. van Niekerk, Ricardo Viana, Difei Wang, Anthony B. Ward, Nick S. Ward, Stephen G. Waxman, Patrice L. Weiss, Jörg Wissel, Steven L. Wolf, Jonathan R. Wolpaw, Sharon Wood-Dauphinee, Ross D. Zafonte, Binhai Zheng, Richard D. Zorowitz
- Edited by Michael Selzer, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo Cohen, Gert Kwakkel, Robert Miller, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
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- Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation
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- 05 May 2014
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- 24 April 2014, pp ix-xvi
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- By Frank Andrasik, Melissa R. Andrews, Ana Inés Ansaldo, Evangelos G. Antzoulatos, Lianhua Bai, Ellen Barrett, Linamara Battistella, Nicolas Bayle, Michael S. Beattie, Peter J. Beek, Serafin Beer, Heinrich Binder, Claire Bindschaedler, Sarah Blanton, Tasia Bobish, Michael L. Boninger, Joseph F. Bonner, Chadwick B. Boulay, Vanessa S. Boyce, Anna-Katharine Brem, Jacqueline C. Bresnahan, Floor E. Buma, Mary Bartlett Bunge, John H. Byrne, Jeffrey R. Capadona, Stefano F. Cappa, Diana D. Cardenas, Leeanne M. Carey, S. Thomas Carmichael, Glauco A. P. Caurin, Pablo Celnik, Kimberly M. Christian, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo G. Cohen, Adriana B. Conforto, Rory A. Cooper, Rosemarie Cooper, Steven C. Cramer, Armin Curt, Mark D’Esposito, Matthew B. Dalva, Gavriel David, Brandon Delia, Wenbin Deng, Volker Dietz, Bruce H. Dobkin, Marco Domeniconi, Edith Durand, Tracey Vause Earland, Georg Ebersbach, Jonathan J. Evans, James W. Fawcett, Uri Feintuch, Toby A. Ferguson, Marie T. Filbin, Diasinou Fioravante, Itzhak Fischer, Agnes Floel, Herta Flor, Karim Fouad, Richard S. J. Frackowiak, Peter H. Gorman, Thomas W. Gould, Jean-Michel Gracies, Amparo Gutierrez, Kurt Haas, C.D. Hall, Hans-Peter Hartung, Zhigang He, Jordan Hecker, Susan J. Herdman, Seth Herman, Leigh R. Hochberg, Ahmet Höke, Fay B. Horak, Jared C. Horvath, Richard L. Huganir, Friedhelm C. Hummel, Beata Jarosiewicz, Frances E. Jensen, Michael Jöbges, Larry M. Jordan, Jon H. Kaas, Andres M. Kanner, Noomi Katz, Matthew S. Kayser, Annmarie Kelleher, Gerd Kempermann, Timothy E. Kennedy, Jürg Kesselring, Fary Khan, Rachel Kizony, Jeffery D. Kocsis, Boudewijn J. Kollen, Hubertus Köller, John W. Krakauer, Hermano I. Krebs, Gert Kwakkel, Bradley Lang, Catherine E. Lang, Helmar C. Lehmann, Angelo C. Lepore, Glenn S. Le Prell, Mindy F. Levin, Joel M. Levine, David A. Low, Marilyn MacKay-Lyons, Jeffrey D. Macklis, Margaret Mak, Francine Malouin, William C. Mann, Paul D. Marasco, Christopher J. Mathias, Laura McClure, Jan Mehrholz, Lorne M. Mendell, Robert H. Miller, Carol Milligan, Beth Mineo, Simon W. Moore, Jennifer Morgan, Charbel E-H. Moussa, Martin Munz, Randolph J. Nudo, Joseph J. Pancrazio, Theresa Pape, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Kristin M. Pearson-Fuhrhop, P. Hunter Peckham, Tamara L. Pelleshi, Catherine Verrier Piersol, Thomas Platz, Marcus Pohl, Dejan B. Popović, Andrew M. Poulos, Maulik Purohit, Hui-Xin Qi, Debbie Rand, Mahendra S. Rao, Josef P. Rauschecker, Aimee Reiss, Carol L. Richards, Keith M. Robinson, Melvyn Roerdink, John C. Rosenbek, Serge Rossignol, Edward S. Ruthazer, Arash Sahraie, Krishnankutty Sathian, Marc H. Schieber, Brian J. Schmidt, Michael E. Selzer, Mijail D. Serruya, Himanshu Sharma, Michael Shifman, Jerry Silver, Thomas Sinkjær, George M. Smith, Young-Jin Son, Tim Spencer, John D. Steeves, Oswald Steward, Sheela Stuart, Austin J. Sumner, Chin Lik Tan, Robert W. Teasell, Gareth Thomas, Aiko K. Thompson, Richard F. Thompson, Wesley J. Thompson, Erika Timar, Ceri T. Trevethan, Christopher Trimby, Gary R. Turner, Mark H. Tuszynski, Erna A. van Niekerk, Ricardo Viana, Difei Wang, Anthony B. Ward, Nick S. Ward, Stephen G. Waxman, Patrice L. Weiss, Jörg Wissel, Steven L. Wolf, Jonathan R. Wolpaw, Sharon Wood-Dauphinee, Ross D. Zafonte, Binhai Zheng, Richard D. Zorowitz
- Edited by Michael E. Selzer, Stephanie Clarke, Leonardo G. Cohen, Gert Kwakkel, Robert H. Miller, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
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- Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation
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- By Krista Adamek, Ana Luisa K. Albernaz, J. Marcio Ayres†, Andrew J. Baker, Karen L. Bales, Adrian A. Barnett, Christopher Barton, John M. Bates, Jennie Becker, Bruna M. Bezerra, Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Richard Bodmer, Jean P. Boubli, Mark Bowler, Sarah A. Boyle, Christini Barbosa Caselli, Janice Chism, Elena P. Cunningham, José Maria C. da Silva, Lesa C. Davies, Nayara de Alcântara Cardoso, Manuella A. de Souza, Stella de la Torre, Ana Gabriela de Luna, Thomas R. Defler, Anthony Di Fiore, Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, Stephen F. Ferrari, Wilsea M.B. Figueiredo-Ready, Tracy Frampton, Paul A. Garber, Brian W. Grafton, L. Tremaine Gregory, Maria L. Harada, Amy Harrison-Levine, Walter C. Hartwig, Stefanie Heiduck, Eckhard W. Heymann, André Hirsch, Leandro Jerusalinsky, Gareth Jones, Richard F. Kay, Martin M. Kowalewski, Shawn M. Lehman, Laura Marsh, Jesús Martinez, William A. Mason, Hope Matthews, Wynlyn McBride, Shona McCann-Wood, W. Scott McGraw, D. Jeffrey Meldrum, Sally P. Mendoza, Nohelia Mercado, Russell A. Mittermeier, Mirjam N. Nadjafzadeh, Marilyn A. Norconk, Robert Gary Norman, Marcela Oliveira, Marcelo M. Oliveira, Maria Juliana Ospina Rodríguez, Erwin Palacios, Suzanne Palminteri, Liliam P. Pinto, Marcio Port-Carvalho, Leila Porter, Carlos Portillo-Quintero, George Powell, Ghillean T. Prance, Rodrigo C. Printes, Pablo Puertas, P. Kirsten Pullen, Helder L. Queiroz, Luis Reginaldo R. Rodrigues, Adriana Rodríguez, Alfred L. Rosenberger, Anthony B. Rylands, Ricardo R. Santos, Horacio Schneider, Eleonore Z.F. Setz, Suleima S.B. Silva, José S. Silva Júnior, Andrew T. Smith, Marcelo C. Sousa, Antonio S. Souto, Wilson R. Spironello, Masanaru Takai, Marcelo F. Tejedor, Cynthia L. Thompson, Diego G. Tirira, Raul Tupayachi, Bernardo Urbani, Liza M. Veiga, Marianela Velilla, João Valsecchi, Jean-Christophe Vié, Tatiana M. Vieira, Suzanne E. Walker-Pacheco, Rob Wallace, Patricia C. Wright, Charles E. Zartman
- Edited by Liza M. Veiga, Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil, Adrian A. Barnett, Roehampton University, London, Stephen F. Ferrari, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil, Marilyn A. Norconk, Kent State University, Ohio
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- Evolutionary Biology and Conservation of Titis, Sakis and Uacaris
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- 05 April 2013
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- 11 April 2013, pp xii-xv
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Sparshott on How to Take Aristotle Seriously*
- Gareth B. Matthews
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- Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie / Volume 36 / Issue 3 / Summer 1997
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 April 2010, pp. 615-622
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Francis Sparshott has written a wonderfully wise, urbane, honest, insightful, and provocative commentary on Aristotle's chief ethical work, the Nicomachean Ethics (NE). Some commentaries on ancient philosophical texts are line-by-line struggles to nail down the meaning of the text, as if the commentator were roofing a house in a high wind, one shingle at a time. Other commentaries are collections of essays, each inspired by a passage in the text, but each growing into a relatively self-contained discussion. Sparshott's commentary is neither of these things.
18 - Augustine
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- By Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts
- Edited by Graham Oppy, Monash University, Austrailia
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- Book:
- The History of Western Philosophy of Religion
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- Acumen Publishing
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- 05 February 2013
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- 29 October 2009, pp 247-262
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Summary
Augustine was born in 354 in Thagaste, a provincial town in what is now eastern Algeria. After studying rhetoric in Carthage and sailing to Italy for what turned out to be a seven-year stay, he returned to North Africa where he became Bishop of Hippo Regius and stayed until his death in 430. In Carthage he had been attracted to Manicheanism; he was, in fact a Manichean ‘auditor’ for nine years. But about the time he left Carthage for Rome he had become disillusioned with Manicheanism. While in Italy he came under the influence of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who eventually baptized him. The experience of his conversion to Christianity is described in his famous autobiography, Confessions, at the end of book 8.
We have more writings from Augustine than from any other ancient author. His extant 100 books and treatises, 500 sermons and 250 letters are eloquent testimony to his magisterial role in the early formation and development of Christian philosophy and theology. He wrote the great City of God in 410 in response to critics who suggested that Christianization had led to the fall of Rome. He died twenty years later, shortly before Hippo itself was attacked and partly burned.
Augustine made a number of seminal contributions to the philosophy of religion. They can be organized under six headings: (i) faith and reason; (ii) proof for the existence of God; (iii) the divine attributes; (iv) the problem of evil; (v) the problem of God's foreknowledge and human free will; and (vi) prayer and religious ritual.
Contributors
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- By Gareth Allen, Rowan Burnstein, Mick Cafferkey, Joseph Carter, Jonathan Cole, Giles Critchley, Marek Czosnyka, Egidio J. da Silva, Bruce Downey, Susan Dutch, Jonathan J. Evans, Peter Farling, Judith Fewings, Clare N. Gallagher, Helen M. K. Gooday, Arun K. Gupta, Adel Helmy, Camilla Herbert, David A. Hilton, Peter J. Hutchinson, Roisin Jack, Thérèse Jackson, Deva S. Jeyaretna, Peter J. Kirkpatrick, W. Hiu Lam, Fiona Lecky, Paul McArdle, Duncan McAuley, William W. McKinlay, Chris Maimaris, Alexander R. Manara, Anjum Memon, Patrick Mitchell, H. C. Patel, Brian Pentland, Puneet Plaha, Ann-Marie Pringle, Richard Protheroe, Heinke Pülhorn, Robert Redfern, Jane V. Russell, Ayan Sen, Martin Smith, Fiona Summers, Matthew J. C. Thomas, Elfyn O. Thomas, I. Timofeev, Lorna Torrens, Rikin A. Trivedi, Martin B. Walker, Laurence Watkins, Ruwan Alwis Weerakkody, Peter C. Whitfield, Maggie Whyte, Maralyn Woodford
- Edited by Peter C. Whitfield, Elfyn O. Thomas, Fiona Summers, Maggie Whyte, Peter J. Hutchinson
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- Head Injury
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- 25 January 2010
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- 09 April 2009, pp ix-xii
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5 - Jesus and Augustine
- Edited by Paul K. Moser, Loyola University, Chicago
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- Jesus and Philosophy
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- 05 June 2012
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- 13 October 2008, pp 109-123
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Summary
Ludwig Wittgenstein opens his Philosophical Investigations with this quotation from Augustine's Confessions:
When they (my elders) named some object, and accordingly moved towards something, I saw this and I grasped that the thing was called by the sound they uttered when they meant to point it out. Their intention was shown by their bodily movements, as it were the natural language of all peoples: the expression of the fact, the play of the eyes, the movement of other parts of the body, and the tone of voice which expresses our state of mind in seeking, having, rejecting, or avoiding something. Thus, as I heard words repeatedly used in their proper places in various sentences, I gradually learnt to understand what objects they signified; and after I had trained my mouth to form these signs, I used them to express my own desires.
Wittgenstein takes this picture of learning a language by “ostension,” that is, by having the teacher point to the objects that the words in that language refer to, as a target for philosophical criticism. He offers several criticisms of this picture. At one point he makes this comment:
Augustine describes the learning of human language as if the child came into a strange country and did not understand the language of the country; that is, as if it already had a language, only not this one. Or again: as if the child could already think, only not yet speak. And “think” would here mean something like “talk to itself”.
Book 11
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Augustine: On the Trinity
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- 05 June 2012
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- 04 July 2002, pp 60-81
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Summary
Outline
We must distinguish between the inner and the outer man. (1.1)
We must distinguish between the bodily object perceived, the vision, and the mind's attention.(2.2)
We do not distinguish during perception the form of the object and the form arising in sense. (2.3–5)
In memory there is this trinity: image, inner vision, and will that unites both. (3.6)
In a way, there are as many trinities in the mind as there are remembrances. (4.7–8.13)
It is impossible to form a concept of a color or sound or flavor one has never actually perceived. (8.15)
We can, however, make up mental images of objects we have never perceived. (9.16–11.18)
Chapter 1
No one doubts that, as the inner man is endowed with understanding, so the outer man is endowed with bodily sense. Let us endeavor, therefore, to discover, if we can, any trace at all of the Trinity even in this outer man, not that he himself is also in the same way the image of God. For the teaching of the Apostle is clear, where he says that the inner man is being renewed in the knowledge of God according to the image of Him who created him [cf. Colossians 3:10]; and when he also says in another place: “Even though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” [2 Corinthians 4:16].
Frontmatter
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Augustine: On the Trinity
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- 05 June 2012
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- 04 July 2002, pp i-vi
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Book 15
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Augustine: On the Trinity
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- 05 June 2012
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- 04 July 2002, pp 167-224
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Summary
Outline
The previous fourteen books are summarized. (1.1–4.6)
The truth that God is perfectly simple is explained. (5.7–7.11)
For God all things are present. (7.13)
We must distinguish (a) bodily perception, (b) memory, and (c) the perception of eternal objects. (8.14–9.16)
We must distinguish written and spoken words, their mental images, and the thoughts they express. (10.17–11.21)
My indubitable knowledge that I live defeats skepticism. (12.21–22)
We return to God's absolute simplicity. (13.22)
We return to consider words and thoughts. (14.23–15.25)
The Christian message is restated. (16.25–28.51)
Chapter 1
Wanting to train the reader in the things that were made so that he might know Him by whom they were made, we have now at last arrived at His image, which is man. But it is man in that by which man is superior to other animals, namely, in reason and understanding, and whatever else can be said of the rational or intellectual soul that pertains to that thing which is called “mind” [mens] or “rational soul” [animus]. Several Latin authors, according to their own special terminology, called animus that which excels in man and is not in the beast, thus distinguishing it from anima which is also found in the beast.
Book 10
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Augustine: On the Trinity
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- 05 June 2012
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- 04 July 2002, pp 41-59
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Summary
Outline
Since we cannot love what is unknown to us, what motivates us to get to know anything? (1.1.–2.4)
How, in particular can the mind seek to know itself? (3.5–4.6)
Becoming preoccupied with images of bodies, the mind may become confused about itself. (5.7–6.8)
Thus, some have come to think the mind is blood, brain, or something other bodily thing. (7.9)
But, unlike a body, no part of the mind occupies less extension the whole. (7.10)
Nothing is so present to the mind as the mind itself. (7.10–9.12)
The nature of the mind is to be discovered in what we cannot doubt about ourselves, e.g., that we live, remember, understand, will, think, know, and judge. (10.13–14)
Since the mind is certain of its essence and is not certain that it is anything bodily, it is not [essentially] anything bodily. (10.15–16)
Memory, understanding, and will together constitute an image of the Divine Trinity. (11.17–12.19)
Chapter 1
Let us now proceed in an orderly fashion, with a more exact purpose, to explain these same questions more thoroughly. First of all, since no one can in any way love a thing that is wholly unknown, we must carefully examine of what sort is the love of those who study, that is, of those who do not yet know a branch of knowledge, but are eager to learn it. For even with respect to those things to which the term “study” is not generally applied, love often arises by simply hearing about them.
Chronology
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Augustine: On the Trinity
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- 05 June 2012
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- 04 July 2002, pp xxx-xxx
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Summary of Books 1–7
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Augustine: On the Trinity
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- 05 June 2012
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- 04 July 2002, pp xxxiii-xxxiv
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Summary
As Augustine himself makes clear at the beginning of Book 15, in his own summary of the fourteen preceding books at DT 15.3.5, the first four books of De Trinitate are devoted to establishing the scriptural foundation for the Doctrine of the Trinity. It is especially important to Augustine to make clear in these books that the Son, the second person of the Trinity, is not “less than He who sends, because the latter sends and the former is sent, since the Trinity, which is equal in all things, and is also equally unchangeable in its nature, invisible, and present everywhere, works inseparably” (DT 15.3.5).
The next three books, Books 5 through 7, are more philosophical than what had preceded. They are aimed at developing a philosophical, and especially a metaphysical, vocabulary for talk about God. Thus in Book 5 Augustine insists that “nothing can be said of God according to accident, because nothing accidental can happen to Him” (DT 5.5.6). Indeed, he goes on, there is nothing changeable in God at all. Yet, he adds, we may say some things about God relatively, or in relation, “as the relation of Father to Son, and of Son to Father.”
Book 9
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Augustine: On the Trinity
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- 05 June 2012
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- 04 July 2002, pp 23-40
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Summary
Outline
Let us resolve again to try to understand the Doctrine of the Trinity. (1.10)
Consider the three things: lover, beloved, and love. (2.2)
When the mind loves itself there is this trinity: mind, love, and knowledge [of itself]. (3.3–4.4)
When the mind loves itself, love and knowledge of itself are not mere parts of it. (4.5–7)
In that case mind, love, and knowledge are each in the other two, yet each is a substance. (5.8)
Having seen in our own mind, or some body or some place we can recognize its form or type. (6.9–11)
We do willingly with our bodies only what we have previously formulated in mental language. (7.12)
One who knows and loves justice perfectly is just before doing any just deeds. (8.13–9.14)
We must distinguish between words of a natural language, even as thought, and mental words. (10.15)
Knowing itself, the mind begets knowledge of itself that is like itself and equal to itself. (11.16–12.18)
The mind, its knowledge of itself, and its love of itself are an image of the Divine Trinity. (12.18)
Chapter 1
We are indeed seeking a trinity, though not just any trinity at all, but that Trinity which is God, and the true, the supreme, and the only God. Keep waiting, therefore, you, whoever you are, who hear these words. For we are still seeking, and no one rightly faults searching for such things, provided only that the searcher remain firmly rooted in the faith while he seeks that which it is so difficult to know or to express.
Book 13
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Book:
- Augustine: On the Trinity
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2002, pp 103-135
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Summary
Outline
When we think of John, we represent him to ourselves with a made -up image of his outer features, and think of him as having a human soul, the nature of which we know from our own case. (1.1–3)
We turn over the sounds of words through images, but learn their meaning through reason. (1.4)
We can see faith in ourselves, but we have only indirect evidence that others have faith. (2.5)
How can it be that everyone wants to be happy, yet not everyone knows what happiness is? (4.7)
The answer is that happiness is getting everything you want and wanting only what it would be food for you to get. (5.8–7.10)
Since no one who is happy abandons life willingly, immortality is required for happiness. (8.11)
God has a plan for human salvation. (9.12–19.24)
By faith we may obtain the happiness of immortal life. (20.25)
One who commits the words of faith to memory, and whose will combines the words with their meaning, which he loves and believes, may live according to the trinity of the inner man. (20.26)
Chapter 1
In the preceding book of this work – the twelfth – we were busily occupied in distinguishing the function of the rational mind in temporal things, where not only our knowledge, but also our action are called into play, from the more excellent function of this same mind which is employed in the contemplation of eternal things, and has its final goal in knowledge alone.
Cambridge texts in the history of philosophy
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
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- Book:
- Augustine: On the Trinity
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2002, pp 229-230
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Book 8
- Augustine
- Edited by Gareth B. Matthews, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Translated by Stephen McKenna
-
- Book:
- Augustine: On the Trinity
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 04 July 2002, pp 3-22
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Summary
Outline
In the Divine Trinity, paradoxically, three persons are not greater than one. (1.1)
All bodily analogies to the relationships among the persons of the Trinity mislead. (2.3)
There would be no changeable goods, unless there were an unchangeable good. (3.4–5)
To think of a bodily thing our mind must represent to itself something with bodily features. (4.6–7)
We can represent the Virgin Mary and the Apostle Paul to our mind through a bodily image. (5.7–8)
We know what a mind is because we have one. (6.9)
We know there are other minds by analogical reasoning. (6.9)
We can know what a just mind or soul is through knowledge of the form of justice. (6.9)
We love God and our neighbors from the same love. (7.10–10.14)
Preface
In this Trinity, as we have said elsewhere, those names, which are predicated relatively, the one of the other, are properly spoken of as belonging to each person in particular, as Father and Son, and the Gift of both, the Holy Spirit; for the Father is not the Trinity, nor the Son the Trinity, nor the Gift the Trinity. But when they are spoken of singly with respect to themselves, then they are not spoken of as three in the plural number but as one, the Trinity itself. Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; the Father is good, the Son is good, the Holy Spirit is good; and the Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent, and the Holy Spirit is omnipotent; but yet there are not three gods, nor three goods, nor three omnipotents, but one God, one good, and one omnipotent, the Trinity itself.