Augustine has a varying relationship with western philosophy. While Augustine differentiates from the western philosophical tradition with his view of faith seeking understanding, he also rejects and accepts ideas from Plato’s theory of forms.
The western philosophy tradition that preceded Augustine, tried to understand everything that is based on empirical evidence and logic. While western philosophers did use mythos in their explanations of the world, mythos was not their primary explanation. While philosophers approached this task in differing manners and provided differing explanations, they all attempted in their own way to explain the world. Thales, one of the presocratic philosophers, that all was water (Curd 2001 p. 14). Other presocratic …show more content…
In the book, The Republic, written by Plato, Socrates discusses justice with a number of people. During his discussions he proceeds to show, using logic, that others do not know what they think they know. For Socrates, the knowing what you do not know is the essence of wisdom. While articulating Socrates views, Plato also inserts his own views. Plato’s metaphysics engages in the problems in philosophy to better explain the world. Aristotle then picks up where his predecessors left off, in adding a number of different philosophical ideas. His metaphysics, in trying to provide a rational explanation for everything, is particularly ambitious. In particular, he establishes the four causes (Metaphysics 5, 2, 25). Overall, western philosophers used logos to provided new insights and explanations of the world. For these philosophers, logos were primary in their explanations. This philosophical tradition was well established when Augustine was writing the …show more content…
In the book The Republic, Plato also uses Socrates to articulate his own ideas about the world of forms. In the world of forms, he discusses two different worlds. Our world here “make[s] use of the visible forms” which resemble the ideal forms which can be found in the world of forms. (Plato 203). These visible forms are just shadows of the ideal forms (Plato 203). Thus, the visible forms are inferiors to the ideal forms in Plato’s world of forms. These forms also do not become matter. Plato’s views about the world of forms are particularly important when exploring his relationship to Augustine. While Augustine accepts Plato’s dualist ontology, he also rejects Plato’s view that forms never become
The western philosophy tradition that preceded Augustine, tried to understand everything that is based on empirical evidence and logic. While western philosophers did use mythos in their explanations of the world, mythos was not their primary explanation. While philosophers approached this task in differing manners and provided differing explanations, they all attempted in their own way to explain the world. Thales, one of the presocratic philosophers, that all was water (Curd 2001 p. 14). Other presocratic …show more content…
In the book, The Republic, written by Plato, Socrates discusses justice with a number of people. During his discussions he proceeds to show, using logic, that others do not know what they think they know. For Socrates, the knowing what you do not know is the essence of wisdom. While articulating Socrates views, Plato also inserts his own views. Plato’s metaphysics engages in the problems in philosophy to better explain the world. Aristotle then picks up where his predecessors left off, in adding a number of different philosophical ideas. His metaphysics, in trying to provide a rational explanation for everything, is particularly ambitious. In particular, he establishes the four causes (Metaphysics 5, 2, 25). Overall, western philosophers used logos to provided new insights and explanations of the world. For these philosophers, logos were primary in their explanations. This philosophical tradition was well established when Augustine was writing the …show more content…
In the book The Republic, Plato also uses Socrates to articulate his own ideas about the world of forms. In the world of forms, he discusses two different worlds. Our world here “make[s] use of the visible forms” which resemble the ideal forms which can be found in the world of forms. (Plato 203). These visible forms are just shadows of the ideal forms (Plato 203). Thus, the visible forms are inferiors to the ideal forms in Plato’s world of forms. These forms also do not become matter. Plato’s views about the world of forms are particularly important when exploring his relationship to Augustine. While Augustine accepts Plato’s dualist ontology, he also rejects Plato’s view that forms never become