Augustine's Confessions, Chapter 11, UC Davis Philosophy 1, G. J. Mattey

Augustine's Confessions
UC Davis Philosophy 1
G. J. Mattey

Confessions Philosophy 1 Spring, 2002 G. J. Mattey	Plotinus Born 205 AD Studied in Alexandria, Egypt Taught in Rome Founder of neo-Platonism Died 270 AD
Neo-Platonism Plotinus's interpretation of Plato's thought Greatly influenced the thought of Augustine Reality is arranged in a hierarchy The One (unitary source of all being) Mind (location of the Forms) Soul (origin of space and time) Nature (matter ordered by space, time, and Forms) Matter (undifferentiated, lowest kind of being) Evil lies in the lower orders and is privation	Augustine Born 354 From Tagaste, North Africa Bishop of Hippo (395) First great Christian philosopher Died 430
Augustine's Winding Path Father was a pagan, mother a Christian Began as a Christian Became attracted to paganism Then to Manicheanism (two Gods: one good, one evil) Then to skepticism Finally returned to Christianity, through Plotinus, who explained evil as privation	Augustine's Contributions Brought Greek philosophy to Christianity, giving it greater intellectual resources Defended Christian doctrine against various heresies Argued against skepticism: one cannot doubt that one exists and one has the thoughts one does when doubting
Creation The Old Testament states that in the beginning, God made heaven and earth If a thing is variable, then there was something that did not exist before If there was something that does not exist before, then that thing was made Heaven and earth are variable, and hence made They clearly did not make themselves, since they would have existed before they existed	The Word God did not make the world like an artist, who gives form to pre-existing matter Heaven and earth were not created in heaven and earth There is no pre-existing material for creation; only God exists primoridally It is not by uttering words, for something would have existed as medium So creation is by a Word co-eternal with God
Misunderstanding Eternity An ancient error is to ask what God did before creation (e.g., rest) But a new movement of will by God would contradict God's eternal substance Another error would be to ask in consequence why the world has not existed eternally This error betrays ignorance of what eternity is	No Time Before Time Eternity stands forever and what is eternal is always present Time does not stand and moments of time are not present all at once, and hence are not eternal God made nothing before making heaven and earth If there was time then, God had already made time If there was not time then, there was no "before then"
What is Time? Past time depends on things passed Future time depends on things approaching Present time depends on things being The present recedes into the past, so time is only by tending toward non-being This raises paradoxes How can the past be long ago, when it no longer is? How can a stretch of time be long, when only one of its moment is?	Past, Present, Future It seems that only present time can be measured, since the past and future are not Perhaps the past and future do not exist Or maybe time comes from and goes to a secret place, seen only by prophets If they are somewhere, they should be in the present, since only it is
Present Past, Present Future The only things that are somewhere are causes and signs of the future, and effects and signs of the past It is beyond our knowledge whether God shows the future because it is in some way or only shows a sign There is no past or future, but only a present of things present, a present of things past, a present of things future The past and future can be in the mind at present	Measuring Time We cannot measure time by duration, since it would have to be beyond the present So we can measure it only in its passing through the present This cannot be done by measuring the movement of things A day would be one circuit of the sun, no matter how fast Time is the condition of movement, not vice-versa Time measures motion and rest
Extendedness Time seems to be extendedness, which we ought to be able to measure Probably it is the extendedness of the mind itself We try to measure from a starting-point to an ending-point But the starting-point ceases to be It remains only as an impress in my mind	Acts of the Mind The mind acts in three ways Expecting Attending Remembering What it expects passes, by way of what it attends to, into what it remembers A long future is a long expectation of the future A long past is a long memory of the past
God's Mind God has no expectations or memories God knows everything unitarily without changing at all By analogy, God created the universe without changing at all	.

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