Similarities Between Augustine And Plato

ow can we have free will? One of his works he is well known for was his The City of God, in which he lays out what a world mindset and a godly mindset looks like. Augustine also examined Plato 's idea that humans have lived multiple lives and represents the idea in a way that he deemed more plausible. Augustine 's philosophical statements about mankind resemble Plato 's to a point. He takes some of Plato 's ideas and simply rewrites or expounds on them in his own writings. Augustine and Plato did not, however, see faith and reason in the same light. Unlike his predecessor, Augustine believed reason could not be found without faith, and that the two were not stand alone notions. Believing that faith always preceded reason, he claimed that acknowledging only reason would completely eradicate the need for faith, implied that mankind was independent from a higher being, and that this way of thinking negates human intellect. Despite the different opinions on faith, Augustine agrees with Plato that life 's purpose is for acquiring knowledge. Augustine adopts Plato 's concept that there are things learned through the senses and things learned through the soul. Augustine did not, however, agree with Plato about the way humans perceive things through their soul. Thus, he refurbished into his own words Plato 's idea that humans live multiple lives …show more content…
By stating evil is simply a lack of the perfect goodness we are to have a revelation of, he implies that evil does not exist because the world is evil, but because we are to have faith that there can be a pure goodness. Again, stating that evil 's purpose is to promote goodness. Augustine also eludes to the fact that nothing can be perfect outside of God himself, however God does not remove all that is evil in order for us to fully experience the goodness of God and the beauty of the world he