Confessions: Spiritual Autobiography of Augustine * But what is he looking for? Truth * Why truth? Why do you prefer truth? (why not untruth; Nietzsche) truth; correspondence between idea and fact. Fittingness of the intellect to a thing. Aquinas- conceives truth as a light (in thy light, we see light) God is truth and God is love. (not an adjective) * Why truth? If you answer that because you believe there’s some purpose, a map, a teleology to your life and truth is about finding that plan and fulfilling your life, is that inadequate for Augustine? Nietzsche? * Existence for Augustine is not a fact, it is an act. * Truth for Augustine is not an abstract relationship between a subject and a predicate, it is real, concrete. Act of existence is a choice, in deed. * Pg. 20: (31)
Book III (Carthage) * Love & Lust: Augustine distinguishes it. What’s the difference? Love is about the other, lust is about the self. * How is this similar to the critique of the theater in section 2? * You go see the theater and feel compassionate for the people who are suffering, you feel saintly- that is deception. * Jesus is compassionate to prostitutes but not to Pharisees- why? Deception of feeling good . * Why do we love to weep? Why do we get enjoyment from our own misery? * Section 4, he discovers Cicero. What’s the difference between heaven and hell? It’s your heart rather than mind that fundamentally seeks God, what does Augustine s ay about his heart? His heart is converted through Philosophy (love of wisdom). * Section 6, why did A get attracted to Manicheesm because it offers a solution to the problem of evil. What is the bible’s answer to the problem of evil? God answers the problem of evil in book of Job; “the fear of the God is the beginning of the wisdom.” It’s a mystery that we can’t understand. Know thy self- where were you when I created you? (Martin Buber) Job talks to God, three friends talk to concept. Manichee’s answer: there are two Gods- absolute dualism. It also helped A to be free of guilty; whenever he does something wrong, he blames it on the body. It’s my hormone, it’s my ape ancestry. * Section 7, in OT, God approves polygamy, killing animals, and war-fare; God changes the mind, how do we reconcile OT with NT? Moral Relativism- what’s good in one age, different in another? * Evil is not an entity, a creature, not –it-, it’s not substantially real. * God is a spirit * Custom is made by men and there is inward righteousness that can’t change- how do we distinguish between changing and unchanging goodness? Aquinas have four kinds of laws- 2 unchangeable (eternal law of God and natural human nature) 2 changeable (Divine law (OT) and human law ) So the fundamental difference is not between God and man but changeable and unchangeable. Like how a family members have a different law (kids can’t drive), Pendulum; the arm does not change even though the swing changes, it’s got changing and unchanging perspective. * Aquinas: three moral determinants- the nature of act itself, the motif and the circumstances. The nature of act itself does not change, the circumstances always change, the motif frequently change but often changes.
Book IV * Reflection on death and grieving: A’s friend suddenly dies. Wisdom is a kind of a wonder, it comes from questioning, a kind of wonder, that comes from a third kind of wonder, a surprise-. So what’s the surprise? * Section IV: “my heart was black with greif”. Somebody who is very close to you dies, their death is like a sky that overarches everything. Unconscious idolatry? Half of the soul is dead- Single most universal ingredient in the human experience (God and self) Friend is not an object but a co-subject, he is your other eye. So when your other eye goes out, everything you looked at, loses the dimentiality. Ghosts and Corpses (Soul without body, body without Soul- we are terrified because we don’t want to be cut in half) The echo in me dies also. * 