 Born in the city of Tagaste near the city of

Carthage (in modern day Algeria) in N.

Africa
 Christian mother (Monica)
 Pagan father (Patricius, who ultimately adopts
Christianity)
 Citizen of the Roman Empire
 Christianity the official religion of the
Empire since the edict of Constantine
(313ad)
1
 Educated in Carthage
 masters rhetoric
 rejects Christianity
 embraces sensuality
 Mistress & Adeodatus
 Accepts Manichæism
 two opposed fundamental forces for
good and evil (compare the four forces
of contemporary physics: weak; strong;
electromagnetic; gravity)
 conflict manifested in all things
 Explains the inevitability of human
moral failing and the existence of evil
2
 Becomes noted rhetorician
 Moves to Rome as a teacher in 384
 Meets and studies w. Ambrose in Milan
 rejects Manicheanism & accepts (neo)
platonism
 after intellectual struggle adopts
Christianity in 387

3
 Returns to N. Africa & becomes bishop of
Hippo
 Writes extensively in philosophy and
theology
 Recognized as a “Father of the Church”
 Influenced much of medieval philosophy
and anticipates important ideas in modern
philosophy

4
 Distinguish knowledge of
 sensible particular (contingent) objects
 nonsensible laws of science (or platonic forms)
 universality
 necessity

5
 Experience
 limited by space and time
 results in knowledge of the sensible, contingent
particular
 cannot produce knowledge of the universal and
necessary
 We do have knowledge of the universal and
necessary. How?

6
 Trickster secretly tells Confederate the answers
to questions that Confederate could not
otherwise know
 e.g. “What are the four numbers written on the
paper hidden in my desk?”

7
 Trickster & Confederate publicly perform
their trick for Witness
 Trickster asks the question
 Confederate “miraculously” answers
correctly and amazes Witness
 Witness concludes
 Confederate could not have known the
(hidden) answers through sensation
 Trickster must have informed (illumined)
Confederate
 That’s the only way Confederate could
have know the answers
8
 Confederate has knowledge beyond the
bounds of sensation
 Only communication suffices to explain
Confederate’s knowledge
 Certainly, Confederate’s knowledge acquired & not
innate

9
 Thesis: the only way to explain how a person
can have knowledge of universal and necessary
scientific laws/forms is to hypothesize that
God informs or “illuminates” the person and
thereby gives that particular person knowledge
of the forms
 Notice that Illumination involves
communication between God and particular
individuals
 Rejection of Platonic Nativism since knowledge of
the forms is not common to all persons
 The process of illumination is unspecified
10
 Illumination is not innate because
 knowledge of laws/forms is
differentially acquired during the
course of life
 different people learn different
science/forms at different times
 whereas innate knowledge is
common to all and inherent in all
throughout life

11
 Argument from Hierarchy
 The universe is hierarchically organized, with
forms at the top and above people
 Nothing can act upon anything higher in the
hierarchy
 So, people cannot act on forms

12
 So, people cannot come to know the forms
by acting upon the forms through study
 Nevertheless, some people do come to know
some forms
 This knowledge must result from the action
of something at least as high in the hierarchy
as the forms
 But nothing is higher than the forms

13
 Hence, it is the action of the forms upon
people that causes knowledge
 Augustine holds that
 God = the forms
 God is the summation of the forms
 God is the self-knowing creator who creates the
universe by establishing (in matter) the forms
which exist as ideas in God’s mind
 So, an individual’s knowledge of the forms
is the result of God’s communicating about
the forms with the individual knower.
 God’s communicating with a person is God’s
informing the person.

14
 To know a language is to know the
meaning of words in the language
 Meaning distinguishes between co-
extensive properties
 contrast “triangular” & “trilateral”
 A language learner cannot distinguish
co-extensive properties in experience
by ostention
 So, meaning & language cannot be
learned experientially
15
 Since language is mastered differentially, it
is not innate but rather taught
 The only possible teacher is God; it takes a
miracle = illumination (some nonsensory
process) to explain the acquisition of
language

16
 Some people learn scientific laws or forms with
full necessity and universality
 Sensation alone cannot provide such
knowledge since it pertains only to the
particular
 Sensation must be supplemented by the
universal principle of induction authorizing
inference from the particular to the general
 Illumination must be the source of such
knowledge of the principle of induction
17
 If illumination is divine intervention,
 why does learning require our effort and
work?
 why does God illumine evil people?
 what is the exact process of illumination?
 how do you know when you’ve been
illumined rather than deceived?

18
 The universe changes constantly
 To change is to become something from what
was not
 e.g. if a leaf changes from green to red, it
becomes red from what was not, i.e. what was
not red
 So, change requires that something come from
nothing, i.e. that something comes from what
was not.

19
 It is impossible under purely natural processes that
something come from nothing.
 So, there must exist something – God – that never
changes and miraculously creates each momentary
stage of the changing universe from what was not =
nothing (ex nihilo).
 To create ex nihilo is to create without using matter;
it is to create simply by decree, command or
thought.

20
 Since God creates the universe ex nihilo, God
is responsible for everything in the universe
– both good and bad
 In creating the universe, God foresees or
knows the entire history of the universe in
full detail
 So God knows everything that each person
does before he/she does it

21
 (i) By hypothesis, God is perfect =
benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient
 (ii) Assume: Evil exists
 (iii) God created the universe ex nihilo
 So, God is responsible for evil (assuming
evil exists)

22
 But if God is perfect, God could not be
responsible for evil
 Now we have a contradiction =
 God is & is not responsible for evil
 Contradictions are never true and arise in
arguments resulting from one or more false
assumptions
 Hence, either (i), (ii), or (iii) must be false

23
 Augustine rejects (ii); he asserts that what
we take to be evil is really good
 Evil is illusory
 Recognition of evil is a fallible “theoretical
inference”, not observation!
 Recall: Is perception top down?

 Suffering is really a good thing

 it appears evil to us as an inference from
a false theory = ignorance of God’s
purpose in allowing it
24
 Immorality results when people freely
choose what, contrary to appearance, is
actually good yet not as good as what
they might otherwise have chosen
 immorality is really the lesser of two
goods, not the reality of evil

25
 In creating ex nihilo, God knows the entire career
of the universe
 So, God knows every human action before it
occurs
 What God knows shall occur must occur
 So, every human action that does occur must
occur
 What must occur is necessary
 So, every human action is necessary
 What is necessary is not free
 So, no human action is free!
26
 All propositions are true or false
 So, all propositions about the future are true or false
 Consider all true propositions about the future
 the ones about you = your autobiography
 These propositions now indicate what will happen
 your autobiography indicates all that you will ever do
 If the propositions about the future are now true,
then what they indicate will happen must happen
 So, what will happen, must happen
 What must happen is necessary

27
 So, whatever will happen is necessary
 Hence everything that will happen
according to your autobiography is
necessary
 Whatever is necessary is not free
 So, nothing in your autobiography is
free
 Hence you are not free & neither is
anyone else
 Human freedom is illusory
28
 Compatibilism maintains that freedom is
compatible with necessity
 Augustine is a compatibilist: he maintains
that
 God’s omniscience or providence does indeed
imply that all human actions are necessary
 But necessary actions may be voluntary
 A person’s action is voluntary if the person acts
as she wants, decides or wills.
 A free action is merely a voluntary action.
 Hence a free action may be a necessary action
since voluntary actions may be necessary.

29
 Augustine holds that freedom is voluntary
action, even if the action is necessary
 But, assume that you’re imprisoned &
cannot leave
 it is necessary that you stay
 does your staying voluntarily make your staying
free?

30
 Augustine holds that freedom is voluntary
action, even if the action is necessary
 But, voluntary actions require volitions
 Are volitions themselves necessary?
 If volitions are necessary, are voluntary
actions really free?

31