In this blog post, we will look at how the philosophy of inner life, spirit, memory, reason, and will that Augustine spoke of provides insight into modern society and human understanding.
Introduction
Many people often refer to the Middle Ages in the West as the “Dark Ages.” This is because the Middle Ages was an era when Christianity was dominant, and many wars were fought during that time due to Christianity. The word “dark” also gives a negative impression, which may be because the appearance of “God” in the thoughts of thinkers at the time led to a strong perception that they were chasing illusions rather than pursuing logic. However, this is just a “preconception,” and many thinkers from the Middle Ages and their ideas are still being studied today, leaving controversy and questions. When I first encountered medieval philosophy, I had the hasty thought, “Isn’t it an era that can be explained by the word ‘God’?” But as I learned more about medieval philosophy, I began to think again about the meaning of ‘God’ for people at the time. I also began to wonder why ideas developed around God. I also learned that ideas developed in various fields other than ideas about God. I would like to talk about Augustine, a medieval philosopher who developed various ideas, and his ideas about the spirit and soul.
What is the inner life that Augustine claims?
Augustine claims that humans have an inner part and an outer part. Here, the distinction between the inner part and the outer part cannot be seen as the distinction between the spirit (soul) and the body. This is because some mental aspects, such as senses and memories of senses, are abilities that animals as well as humans possess. The internal aspect should be an ability that only humans possess, and it can be defined as a human-specific ability such as spirit, rational judgment, and intellectual contemplation. In addition, Augustine considered the internal aspect to be superior to the external aspect because he, as an introverted philosopher, placed more importance on the internal aspect.
On the other hand, the external senses include the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Among these, Augustine considered sight to be the epitome of the senses and the most complete and representative of the senses.
Sensation-Sight as Argued by Augustine
We need three elements to see something. It is the object that is seen, the act of seeing the object, and the mental orientation. According to Augustine, only this mental orientation is a mental activity. The act of seeing an object is done through the physical part of the eye, so it belongs to the physical senses. This physical sense only works in that situation, but the mental element can work even when you are not looking at something, such as when you recall or think of something.
Augustine described vision as “the result of both the object and the senses.” This means that when we see an object, the object creates a shape in our senses, which is called vision, and this shape is similar to the object we see. For example, when we see an apple, we recognize it through vision, but at the same time, we recognize that it is an apple by recalling the shape of the apple in our minds. Augustine saw that the real objects and the images that come to mind are similar, but not exactly the same. He emphasized that the two are so closely connected that they are difficult to distinguish, but they are actually different.
To elaborate on this similarity, Anthony Kenny’s book Medieval Philosophy states that when we look at an object, a form is created in our senses, and this form bears a resemblance to the object we see. For example, if you dip your hand in water and then take it out, the water will be refilled, but the afterimage of the space your hand occupied in the water will remain. This shows that there is a difference between the shape of the object we see and the impression it leaves on our eyes. However, Augustine believes that the two are so closely connected that it is difficult to distinguish between them.
What is the memory that Augustine claims?
As mentioned earlier, something can be said to be “seen” due to the similarity of the object itself and its shape. At this time, the shape is formed by “memory,” which Augustine considered very important. He argued that the reason we can recognize something is because we have memory. In other words, we can recognize something thanks to the information that already exists in our memory. For example, if you were to ask someone to imagine the house where a singer lives, those who have been to that house will be able to recall its exact shape, but those who have not will have difficulty recognizing the house without relying on their memories.
Augustine offers an explanation in a similar way to visual perception through a philosophical analysis of memory. If vision is composed of objects that can be seen, vision itself, and mental orientation, then memory is composed of recalled memories, recall itself, and thinking. He also argued that mental orientation and thinking are the result of the “action of the will.” This will can be manifested through the external eye and the internal eye. If the internal eye is chosen, it creates such a vivid similarity that even reason cannot distinguish what is seen from the outside from what is imagined from the inside. For this reason, we can imagine things realistically, but we cannot voluntarily and completely control these imaginations.
What is the reason that Augustine claims?
According to Augustine, reason is divided into two types: superior reason and inferior reason. Superior reason is accessible only through “intellect” and is related to eternal and immutable truth. On the other hand, the lower reason deals with temporary and material things, and sometimes acts as a proxy for the higher reason. The higher reason is called “sapientia,” and the lower reason is called “scyentia,” with sapientia meaning wisdom and insight and scyentia meaning scholarship and science.
Sapientia is the contemplation of the true nature and unchanging truth. In the present life, contemplation is about eternal truth, but in the lives of those enlightened by God, it leads to contemplation of God. On the other hand, skientia refers to the perception of the temporary and variable things needed in the present life.
What is the will that Augustine claims?
Augustine’s Confessions show that he was a deeply religious person and that he had a deep understanding of the will. While emphasizing the grace of God, he also argued for the complexity of human will and saw human will as something that must be accountable before God. In other words, he emphasized the importance of divine grace and human will at the same time. Through this, Augustine saw will as a power of the soul that separates intellect and desire, breaking away from the ancient view that will was merely an act of desire.
Augustine presented memory, intelligence, and will as the three best elements that correspond to the image of God. Memory is the ability to think about all kinds of thoughts, and intelligence is the ability to agree with the truth of theoretical thinking through sapientia. Finally, will is the ability to agree with the plan of an action, for example, the plan of the action “I will study from now on” is will. At this point, there are similarities and differences between introverted philosophers and extroverted philosophers regarding will. The similarities include the following: First, the source of all choices made by humans is the pursuit of happiness; second, the decision of an individual act is the choice of a means to an end; and third, both philosophers were concerned with the possibility of not following the commands of will or practical reason.
The difference is that Augustine believed that there was no cause for evil will. He argued that the cause of evil acts is evil will, but that evil will itself has no cause. Adam, the first human being, committed evil acts, but he had no cause for developing evil will. In this regard, the concept of “anti-human freedom” emerges, which refers to the freedom to make conflicting choices despite the direction in which the will of the agent is inclined. In other words, the will has room to make decisions that are contrary to the will.
Conclusion
Augustine was a deeply religious believer, and the necessity of God was often mentioned in his thoughts. In the spirit and soul, there were many parts related to God, and in the will, there were parts that focused on humans. This showed that medieval philosophers did not unconditionally incorporate God into their philosophy.
In addition, the question raised in the introduction, why did medieval philosophers believe in God so much, seems to have been answered to some extent through the ideas of Augustine. At the time, the existence of “God” was considered something that had to be believed in, and I learned that philosophers like Aquinas tried to prove God in a rational way. Although the mind and soul are currently being studied a lot scientifically, I think there is still a lot of need for philosophical research. I think Augustine’s views on the mind and soul are still significant.
