Book XI of Augustine’s Confessions
contains first-rate philosophy, particularly valuable in view of the fact
that it goes against conventional assertions of Greek philosophy, and Augustine
is, perhaps, the first among all philosophers who gives to these ideas forms,
in which they are acceptable to the modern philosophical mind. Concerning the creatio
ex nihilo, this idea would have seemed incredible to the great philosophers
of antiquity, who all thought that prior to creation there had existed certain
primordial hylos, out of which God made the universe and all things in
it. But to Saint Augustine, there is no such thing as pre-existent matter:
“But how didst Thou make the heaven and the
earth and what the engine of Thy mighty fabric? For, it was not as a human
artificer forming one body from another according to the discretion of his
mind, which can, in some way, invest with such a form as it sees in itself by
its inward eye… How, O God, didst Thou make heaven and earth? Verily, neither
in the heaven, nor in the earth, didst Thou make heaven and earth; nor in the
air, or the waters, seeing these also belong to the heaven and the earth; nor
in the whole world didst Thou make the whole world; because there was no place
where to make it, before it was made, so that it might be. Nor didst Thou hold
any thing in Thy hand, whereof to make heaven and earth. For where from
shouldst Thou have this, which Thou hadst not made, thereof to make any thing?
For what is, but because Thou art? Therefore, Thou spokest, and they were made,
and in Thy Word Thou madest them.” (V:XI.)
Augustine’s theory of time is a
superb advancement in Christian philosophy, and a much better exposition of the
concept of time than the great Kant would venture some fourteen hundred years
later. It also coincides with my understanding of why Creation occurred at the
particular point in God’s Design: not “later” and not “earlier”
than it did. In this explanation I will be following Russell’s account
reproduced here, for the next few paragraphs, in a selective and condensed
retelling:
Why was the world not created
sooner? Because there was no “sooner.” Time was created when the world was
created. God is eternal in the sense of being timeless; in God there is no
‘before’ or ‘after,’ but only an eternal present. God’s eternity is exempt from
the relation of time.-- All time is present to Him at once. He did not ‘precede’
His own creation of time, for that would imply that He was in “time,” whereas
He stands eternally outside the stream of time… This leads Saint Augustine to a
very admirable relativistic theory of time. “What
then is time,” he asks. “If no one asks
of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I do not know.” Neither
past nor future, he says, but only the present, really is; the present
is only one moment, and time can only be measured while it is passing.
Nevertheless, there really is a time past, identified with memory, and a time
future, identified with expectation. Thus, there are three times, he says: “a present of things past, a present of things present,
and a present of things future.” To say that there are three times:
past, present, and future, is a loose way of speaking.
The gist of his solution is that
time is subjective. It is all in the human mind, which remembers, considers,
and expects. The theory that time is only an aspect of our thoughts is an
extreme form of subjectivism that St. Augustine exhibits, anticipating not only
Kant’s theory of time, but also Dèscartes’ famous cogito ergo sum. In
his Soliloquia, Augustine says: “You, who
wish to know, do you know you are?--I know it. Whence are you?--I know not. Do
you feel yourself single or multiple?--I know not. Do you feel yourself
moved?--I know not. Do you know that you think?--I do.” This
discussion is superior philosophy, and thus, even on the basis of this alone,
St. Augustine merits being called a great philosopher.
Augustine’s De Civitatis Dei is
remarkable in many aspects, of which we shall focus on just a couple. Here
brilliantly explained is the concept of balance between freewill and
predestination. It is true that God has a foreknowledge of our sins, but we do
not sin because of His foreknowledge. Predestination is a concept that
transcends time, while man exercises his free will within the framework of
time, thus rendering these two concepts incommensurate.
The book also provides us with
Augustine’s detailed opinion of Greek philosophy. He is obviously biased
against all pre-Socratics, which is a pity, but, on the other hand, quite
understandable. “Let Thales depart with his water,
Anaximenes with the air, the Stoics with their fire, Epicurus with his atoms,”
he writes, and there is too little room here for a discussion. The
interesting part starts with a very sympathetic account of Plato, whom he
values above all philosophers. Aristotle to him is inferior to Plato, but he is
still second in philosophical value. “It is said
that Plotinus, that lived but lately, understood Plato the best,” he
says, and in this assessment places Plotinus high, but only as Plato’s
distinguished interpreter.
Plato is right about God, he
says, seeing that He is not a bodily thing, but that all things owe their being
to Him. He is also right in understanding that perception is not the source of
truth. The Platonists are the best in logic and in ethics, and in all respects
nearest to Christianity.
Augustine also speaks, at first
sight surprisingly, but on closer look very understandably, against the Stoics,
because of their wholesale condemnation of human passions. Christian passion
can well be a virtue. Even such emotions as anger and pity are not to be
condemned without a hearing as to their causes, and if these causes are
commendable, there should be nothing wrong with them.
(Concludes tomorrow…)
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