LESSON 2
The Self according to Medieval Philosophers
ST. AUGUSTINE: (354–430) THE SELF HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL
- St. Augustine was bishop of Hippo, in North Africa, and his writings established the 2. intellectual
foundations of Christianity in the West.
- He was born in Thagaste, a town forty-five miles south of Hippo in the Roman province of
Numidia, which is now Algeria.
- His father, Patricius, was a pagan, and his mother, Monica, a Christian. In his late teens he went to
Carthage for further study, and through his reading he became enthused about philosophy.
- He became a teacher of rhetoric in Carthage and later in Rome and Milan.
- His whole life may be characterized as an intellectual and moral struggle with the problem of
evil, (moral evil originated through the disobedience of angels and the temptation of Adam and
Eve. Thus moral evil came about by the misuse of freewill by Adam and Eve. Natural evil is
punishment for moral evil.)
- In his struggle against evil, Augustine believed in a hierarchy of being, God was the Supreme.
- All beings were good because they tended back toward their creator who had made them.
- Augustine's understanding of the self involves the soul, the mind, and consciousness, with a focus
on the role of the intellect .
- The self is made up of “body and soul”
- The concept of self on Dualism
- St. Agustine’s concept of self is in the context of his relation to GOD.
- And he proposed that the separation of the body and soul can be explain by salvation
- The question there is do we believe in life after death?
- To answer these St. Agustine a Christian theologian describe the soul as a rider on the body
EMPHASIZING the distinction between the tangible and the immaterial.
- SOUL – representing the true person.
- The fact that the 2 are distinct it the SOUL con not exist without its body.
- The soul can be:
IMMORTAL – communion with the Christian GOD
SELF – Relationship with the Christian GOD which includes both of perception of GOD’s
Love and his response to it which he achieves through his self representation and eventually
INNER PEACE – finding GOD is the only way to obtain inner calm he suggested that….
HUMAN MIND – Image of GOD, that the mind is need capable of remembering its
CREATOR
- He believed that the self is defined by an immortal soul that is illuminated by God. He believed that
humans gain knowledge through God revealing truth to the soul, rather than through sense
experience alone.
o The most important one is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”)
Every human person is created into the image and likeness of God.
o Every human person is made for GOD. It is only upon his recognition of God’s love and
his/her response to the invitation to love that his/her finds inner peace.
o Happiness is the end-all and the be-all (the most important part of something or the reason
for something) of human living and this happiness can be found in God alone
- Like Aristotle – St. Agustine also taught virtue – virtue is considered the “order of love”. To love
GOD means necessarily to love fellowmen.
- “Never to do any harm to others as you do not want others do unto you” (Treat other people with
the concern and kindness you would like them to show toward you.)( Treat other people the way
you want to be treated.)
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)
- Ranked among the most influential thinkers of medieval scholasticism.
- He was born on year 1224 and Died on March 7, 1274
- His feast day is January 28
- was an Italian Dominican theologian
- Like Aristotle, Aquinas proclaimed the supremacy for the search of the true wisdom and the reason
in everything.
- A human person can know the truth with certainty by the use of his reason
- St Thomas Aquinas is known primarily as a brilliant theologian and philosopher and is the patron
saint of universities and scholars.
- However, he stressed that there are some truths that cannot be known by human reasons alone and
which can be perceives only with the aid of light of divine revelation.( something that
is revealed by God to humans) because they emanate from the same source. “God, who is the
TRUHT itself.”
- For Aquinas, we don't encounter ourselves as isolated minds, but rather always as agents
interacting with our environment.
Self-knowledge
o Aquinas believed that self-knowledge is a product of experience, and that it's possible to gain
a deeper understanding of oneself by being more aware of how one's actions affect others.
o He distinguished between two types of self-knowledge: singular knowledge of one's own
mental states, and universal knowledge of human nature.
o He believed that self-knowledge moves from objects to acts, to faculties, and then to essence.
Self-definition
Aquinas believed that self-definition is knowledge of the self that comes from experience of
the world around us.
He rejected the idea that the mind is always active and subconsciously self-conscious.
Self-awareness
Aquinas believed that self-awareness is a natural part of intellectual activity.
He believed that a form of self-awareness is already intrinsic to every intellectual act.
- Aquinas begins his theory of self-knowledge from the claim that all our self-knowledge is
dependent on our experience. (knowledge of one's particular mental states or knowledge of one's
own nature and to have self-knowledge is to know one's particular sensations, experiences, and
propositional attitudes (beliefs, desires, and so on).
- As well as our awareness of ourselves is triggered and shaped by our experiences of objects in our
environment.
- St. Thomas become the father of the Thomistic School of Theology.
He believed that the existence of God could be proven in 5 ways.
1. The Argument from Motion: Our senses can perceive motion by seeing that things act on
one another. Whatever moves is moved by something else. Consequently, there must be a
First Mover that creates this chain reaction of motions. This is God. God sets all things in
motion and gives them their potential.
2. The Argument from Efficient Cause: Because nothing can cause itself, everything must
have a cause or something that creates an effect on another thing. Without a first cause, there
would be no others. Therefore, the First Cause is God.
3. The Argument from Necessary Being: Because objects in the world come into existence
and pass out of it, it is possible for those objects to exist or not exist at any particular time.
However, nothing can come from nothing. This means something must exist at all times. This is
God.
4. The Argument from Gradation: There are different degrees of goodness in different things.
Following the “Great Chain of Being,” which states there is a gradual increase in complexity,
created objects move from unformed inorganic matter to biologically complex organisms.
Therefore, there must be a being of the highest form of good. This perfect being is God.
5. The Argument from Design: All things have an order or arrangement that leads them to a
particular goal. Because the order of the universe cannot be the result of chance, design and
purpose must be at work. This implies divine intelligence on the part of the designer. This is
God.
