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KNOWLEDGE AS A HUMAN NECESSITY IN AUGUSTINES WRITINGS
Abstract
An intellective and convulsive spirit (in Madura and Cartage, where he attended his secondary studies, and also in Milan, where he attended Platonist circles), Augustine passed from the knowledge of the sensible world to that of the intelligible, irrevocably fascinated by wisdom perceived as a modus vivendi. He aspired to happiness, yet he did not fully understand it until he was able to know himself. By gaining self-knowledge he understood that there is someone, beyond himself, who helped him discover himself as a cognizant subject. Thus, the certainty of self-knowledge became the premise of the Truth and the Supreme Good (Summum Bonum) for which he yearned in order to receive peace in comprehensive love. The rhetoric teacher from Milan explained the possibilities of understanding the supreme Truth as the source of knowledge. Knowledge is one of the human necessities, as faith is necessary to understanding (credo ut inteligam) the meaning of existence. The mind enlightened by faith passes from the sensible things of life to the knowledge of intransient truth. The souls anxieties disappear in as much as man finds rest in the Truth perceived as source and finality of all knowledge.
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References16
AUGUSTIN, De vera religione, LIII, 102, Humanitas, București, 2007, p. 202 ;
AUGUSTIN, Solilocvii, Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, 1993, pp. 104-105;
Scot McDONALD, ,,Augustin’’, in Dicționar de filosofia cunoașterii, vol I, Trei, Bucharest, 1999, p. 97;
Ibidem
O. NISTOR, ,,Augustin’’, in *** Între antichitate și Renaștere, Minerva, Bucharest, 1984, p. 45;
Dan NEGRESCU, ,,Aurelius Augustinus’’, in vol. Patristica perenia aucta, Universitatea de Vest Publishing House, Timișoara, 2002, p. 145
Anton ADĂMUȚ, Cum visează filosofii, ALL, Bucharest, 2008, 0. 169;
Ibidem, p. 167;
Ibidem, p. 170;
N. BALCA, ,,Aurelius Augustinus’’, in *** Filosofie, Imprimeria de Vest, Oradea, 1996, p. 61 ;
AUGUSTIN, Contra Academicos, III, 5, col. 0936, Dacia, Cluj Napoca, 2002, pp. 134-135;
N. BALCA, ,,Aurelius Augustinus’’, quoted ed., pp, 61-62;
Loredana ROȘCA, Filosofie medievală, Bucharest, 2005, p. 75;
Ibidem
Ibidem, p. 73;
Andrei MARINCA, ,,Conceptul de adevăr la Anselm de Canterbury’’, in Anselm de Canterbury, Despre adevăr, Ratio et Revelatio Publishing House, Oradea, 2015, p. 94.
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