Introduction to the Philosophy of Saint Augustine (continued)
feeling of the rule of folly, while it is in us, and at the last to escape from it. |
28. Here again arises a very difficult question. For in what way shall we fools be able to find a wise man, whereas this name, although hardly any one dare openly, yet most men lay claim to indirectly by so disagreeing with one another in the very matters in the knowledge of which wisdom consists, that either none of them is wise or some certain one? But when the fool inquires, who is that wise man? I do not at all see in what way he can be distinguished and perceived. For by no signs whatever can one recognize any thing, unless he shall have known that thing, whereof these are signs. But the fool is ignorant of wisdom. For though it is allowed, as in the case of gold and silver and other things of that kind, both to know them when you see them and not to have them, wisdom may not be seen by the mind's eye of him who has it not. For whatever things we come into contact with by bodily sense are presented to us from without; and therefore we may perceive by the eyes what belong to others, when we ourselves possess not any of them or of that kind. But what is perceived by the understanding is within the mind, and to have it is nothing else than to see. But the fool is void of wisdom, therefore he knows not wisdom. For he could not see it with the eyes; but he cannot see it and not have it, nor have it and be a fool. Therefore he knows it not, and, so long as he knows it not, he cannot recognize it in another place. No one, so long as he is a fool, can by most sure knowledge find out a wise man, by obeying whom he may be set free from so great evil of folly.
NOTES (Faith and Understanding)
1E, Portalié, S. J., A Guide to the Thought of St. Augustine, Chicago, 1960, p. 118.
3'Translated from the Corpus Christianorum, Vol. 41.
SIL, 5.
'Chapter 54.
5 Chapter 60.
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HE. EXISTENCESOLFSG@p
Zw shat (), the selections that follow The True Religion was composed at Tagaste between 389 and 391 during a period of seclusion in which Augustine founded his first monastery. The treatise is addressed to the friend of his father and his patron Romanianus. Although the principal theme is the refutation of the Manichean religion and the vindication of the truth of the Catholic religion, this apologetic treatise is particularly rich in its anticipation and development of other themes of the Augustininian philosophy. The use and references to history, the contrast between the "old man" and the "new man," and the description of the progress of the soul anticipate similar themes in the City of God. As an apologetic treatise developing various arguments in defense of the faith it anticipates what is developed more fully in other apologetic treatises, e.g. The Advantage of Believing. In this connection the meaning and justification of authority and its relation to reason will be found to be a valuable supplement to some of the selections in the topic on Faith and Understanding. Similarly there is material on sense knowledge and intellectual knowledge which may be studied in connection with the topic on the Problem of Knowledge.