Introduction to the Philosophy of Saint Augustine
does see; for the fact that when he sees a thing he does not move his eyes in search of it shows that he perceives both.
But whether this life that perceives that it perceives corporeal things perceives itself too, is not so clear; except that anyone who looks within himself finds that every living thing flees death. But since death is the opposite of life, it must be that life perceives itself, since it flees its own opposite. But if this be still not clear, let us pass it over, so that we may move on toward our goal only by evidence that is certain and manifest. For this much is clear: we perceive corporeal things by our bodily senses, but we cannot by the sense itself perceive a sense. By the interior sense we perceive both that we are perceiving corporeal things through the bodily sense and also the bodily sense itself.
But by reason all those other things and also reason itself become known and are held together in knowledge. Is this clear to you?
E. Perfectly clear.
A. Tell me now, how did this problem arise, over which, in our search for a solution, we have tarried so long on this road?
CHAPTER 5 The interior sense is superior to the external senses, of which it is a regulator and judge.
11. E. So far as I recall, we are still considering the first of those three questions which we proposed a little while ago in arranging the order of this discussion; namely, how can that be made evident which we must anyhow believe most firmly and steadfastly—that God exists.
A. You are quite right. But I want you also to keep carefully in mind that when I asked you whether you knew that you yourself existed, not only was that clear to us but also two other propositions.
E. J remember that too.
A. See now to which of those three you think pertains everything that is touched by our bodily senses; that is, under which head would you put whatever reaches our senses through the eyes or through any other instrument of the body. Is it in the class which just exists or in that which also lives or in that which also understands?
E. In that which just exists.
A. How about the sense itself? In which class of the three do you think it is?
E. In that which lives.