Introduction to the Philosophy of Saint Augustine
soul's not being unaware of the body's experience." Therefore, the fact that smoke is seen we call a sensation, for by seeing the smoke the eyes experience it, and the eyes are parts of the body, and themselves are bodies; but the fire, of which the body had no experience at all, although its presence became known, we do not term an object of sensation.
46. Aug. I commend you on your memory and the intelligence that is yours to serve it. But your defense of the definition is tottering.
Ev. Will you tell me why?
Aug. Because you do not deny, I think, that the body undergoes some effect when we are growing, or when we become old. At the same time it is clear that we do not perceive it by any of the senses; and yet it does not escape the soul. Therefore, there is one effect on the body of which the soul is not unaware, though this cannot be called sensation. Plainly, by seeing those things to be larger which formerly we had seen smaller and seeing men grown old who obviously had been young men and boys, we infer that our own bodies are undergoing some such change, even now while we are talking. Nor are we mistaken in this, I am sure; for I am more likely to make a mistake saying that I see than saying that I understand that my hair is growing now or that my body undergoes constant change. And if this change is an effect on the body, which no one denies, and if we do not actually perceive it by the senses, yet the soul is not unaware of it because we are not unaware of it, then, as I said, the body undergoes an effect of which the soul is not unaware, and yet it is not sensation. Wherefore, that definition which should include nothing which is not sensation, is certainly defective, since it did include this.
Ev. I see the only thing remaining for me to do is to ask you to give another definition or to revise this one, if you can; for in the light of your reasoning, perfectly convincing to me, I must own that it is defective.
Aug. It is an easy matter to correct this, and I want you to try it. Take my word for it—you will do it, once you grasp well where it is at fault.
Ev. There is no other possibility, is there, than that it includes something that does not belong there?
Aug. How, then?
Ev. Because of the fact that the body ages, even in its youth, it cannot be denied that it undergoes some change. And when we know that, we have an experience of the body of which the soul is