1.3

• St. Augustine: 'Plotinus’ ideas had a profound influence on St. Augustine'
• Augustine


  • Characterized as Christianity’s first theologian
• Plato’s vision of immortal souls striving to achieve union with the eternal realm through intellectual enlightenment


  Transformed by Augustine into immortal souls striving to achieve union with God through faith and reason
• Plato's vision of a bifurcated universe

  • There are two realms: an intelligible realm where truth itself dwells, and the sensible world which we perceive by sight and touch
• St. Augustine integrated the philosophical concepts of Plato with the tenets of Christianity
• Descartes was an integral part of the scientific revolution
• Augustine's view of the body and soul

  Body is the “spouse” of the soul, united by a “natural appetite”
• Being self-conscious is integral to having a personal identity
• Descartes believed one must question things instead of accepting them by “faith” to develop a rock-solid foundation of beliefs
• Plato's ultimate reality, the eternal realm of the Forms

  Became in Augustine’s philosophy a transcendent God
• Belief about the physical body

  • Radically different from and inferior to the immortal soul
• More than 500 years after Plato died, a Roman Philosopher named Plotinus spearheaded Neoplatonism
• Body and soul in Augustine's philosophy

  Remain irreconcilably divided, the body to die, the soul to live eternally in a transcendent realm of Truth and Beauty
• Descartes’ approach to understanding the self is different from the aforementioned philosophers
• Augustine was convinced that Platonism and Christianity were natural partners
• Descartes: '“I think, therefore I am.”'
• Descartes insisted on using thinking abilities to investigate, experiment, analyze, and develop well-reasoned conclusions supported with proofs
• Descartes believes that your physical body is secondary to your personal identity
• Descartes' first principle in his theory of knowledge: '“I think, therefore I am.”'
• If you are consistently not conscious and unaware of your thinking, reasoning, and perceiving process, then it is impossible for you to have a self-identity
• The two dimensions of self - self as a thinking entity and self as a physical body - are distinct from each other
• In cases of physical death, Descartes believes the soul continues to exist seeking union with God’s infinite and eternal mind in the spiritual realm
• Being self-conscious is integral to having a personal identity


  Conversely, it would be impossible to be self-conscious if we didn’t have a personal identity of which to be conscious
• No rational person will doubt his or her own existence as a conscious, thinking entity
• Your self-identity is dependent on being aware of engaging in mental operations
• Characteristics of a thinking thing

  • You understand situations in which you find yourself
  • You doubt the accuracy of ideas presented to you
  • You affirm the truth of a statement made about you
  • You deny an accusation that someone has made
  • You will yourself to complete a task you have begun
  • You refuse to follow a command that you consider to be unethical
  • You imagine a fulfilling career for yourself
  • You feel passionate emotions toward another person
• Descartes' view on the two different dimensions of self has raised questions from other great thinkers
• Descartes argues that each dimension of self can exist and function without the other
• Descartes believes that the self exists independently from the body
• Your body is not as central to your self as your capacity to reflect and think
• Descartes failed in his attempt to create an integrated concept of the body and mind
• In cases of sleep or comatose, bodies continue to function even if minds are not thinking
• Your body plays a role in your self-identity