MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

1. Following Saint Augustine, why is it not possible to understand reality without

believing?
Saint Augustine believed that belief is basic knowledge. Believing is necessary
because it is the precursor of understanding. The confirmation of the need to believe
depends upon the mind’s awareness of its limits. Following the discussion of St.
Augustine on faith and reason, he stresses out that faith is necessary for man to
reason. He felt that knowledge of God comes after faith and will. And, like the
Platonists of his period, he felt that interior contemplation on divine things may
reveal a great deal about the world and God. He agreed with them that eternal
objects like qualities, numbers, and God might be discovered by introspection and
logical thinking. It is the authority of God that comes first and will reveal and prepare
the way for man to understand things and judge the truth of reality. God made man a
rational being capable of knowing and reason and through illumination, He paved
the way to understanding. “Unless you believe, you shall not understand.”
2. For Saint Augustine, how can we be certain about anything?
Saint Augustine has contradicted skepticism by writing and pointing out that we
can know many things with certainty. Knowing the certainty of something is proving
that it is true, it should be in conformity with the reality to be proven as true. There
are many things that are perceived by our senses which are mere phantasms when
it comes into our mind. St. Augustine pointed out that to be certain about something
is to judge its truthfulness which can be done by the act of knowing that goes inward
toward ourselves in the intellect and interior mind, not outward towards material
things. It is going through and seeing ourselves because the one truth of which we
are certain is not only that we exist and know, but also capable of finding truths and
knowledge: self-referential, private, or subjective, and formal, logical, or
mathematical truths. This process can be compared with that of Ideogenesis where
the senses perceive something which is treated by our phantasm, and it is where the
intellect works by abstractions where remains the true essence and qualities. With
St. Augustine, skepticism is absurd.
3. According to Saint Augustine, how do we know?
Saint Augustine stresses three different levels of knowing: the first level is that of
sensation which is common to rational and irrational beings. The second is that
wisdom which is proper to man and is done by the mind alone without any influence
coming from the sensation. The third is that the mind judges corporeal objects
according to some eternal and non-corporeal concepts or models through an
intermediary "species" or medium. Sensations may only lead to extramental sense-
perceptible reality knowledge if they are compared to the ideas imprinted in the soul
by divine light. St. Augustine maintained that these eternal truths or things that are
known by man exclusively through intelligence without the help of the senses are
made visible to the mind by the means of illumination that comes from God. The
human mind may make true judgments and see the attributes of immutability and the
need for everlasting thoughts because of this illumination.
4. Given his teaching on faith and reason, how could Saint Augustine respond to
this statement: “Fort those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those
who do not, none will suffice.”
Reason is accompanied by faith, this is the means of the attainment of wisdom
according to Saint Augustine. The authority of Christ comes first before human
reason. The act of the intellect is determined not by reason, but by the will. The will
comes before (full) knowledge in that it chooses what is loved and so decides what
is known. We can only know what our passions are pursuing if we have complete
knowledge of them. Augustine, like any good Platonist, felt that our affections should
be focused on things above ourselves. Another way to put it is that things (in the
world or eternal things) might be known incompletely without adequate
acknowledgment that God is present; God is still present within the soul and, in a
sense, unconsciously assists the mind in understanding the world. Recognizing
God's presence, admitting and yielding to his kindness, however, is the only way to
get a comprehensive understanding. Full knowledge of God and the world is
achievable once the affections are fixed on him. For those who believe everything is
given and enough to understand and comprehend, but for those who do not believe,
they will never be satisfied of what they know because without belief, they cannot
fully know.