DE Weekly: Augustine, Knowledge, & Faith
Below is an archived email originally sent on November 25, 2024.
Augustine, Knowledge, & Faith
“I know that I know nothing” is a quote attributed to Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher from whom much of modern wisdom can be traced back to. This quote can be credited to Plato’s Apology, and many variations of the quote exist.
No matter which way it appears, it serves to emphasize an important point. Socrates believed there are different kinds of wisdom: human wisdom, which is limited in scope, and divine wisdom, which is limitless.
To Socrates, who was revered as one of the wisest men of his time, humans should not assume we know what we don’t know–the wisest of all are the gods, and they have knowledge we can’t even fathom.
Socrates was profoundly aware of his own ignorance. And that’s part of why he was considered to be so intelligent.
This distinction between types of knowledge is not reserved for the ancient gods of Greece–it has held true for the Christian God, as well. St. Augustine of Hippo echoes the sentiments laid out by Socrates around 800 years before him.
Augustine, the 4th–5th century theologian, wrote “Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.”
Although it puts things in a much more religious perspective, this quote says the same thing that Socrates did.
It’s no wonder that Augustine’s work was highly influential for both the early and later existentialists, even the existentialists who claimed to be Atheist–including Sartre.
Augustine was a Christian thinker who applied Classical thought to biblical teachings, which were later applied to secular twentieth century interpretations of these ancient ideas.
Working on the foundation of human beings being a compound of body and soul, Augustine argued that the soul–for him, the center of consciousness, perception, and thought–should be the ruling part of us.
He said we should not go outside ourselves in the quest for truth. “If you find that you are by nature mutable,” Augustine wrote, “transcend yourself.”
On its surface, this quote could appear contradictory. Augustine says “we should not go outside ourselves”, then says we must “transcend ourselves”.
What he means is this: if you find that you are mutable, you should try and transcend your current nature–to admit there is more that you could be.
In other words, be willing to admit that you know nothing, and open yourself to the possibility that there is more to know.
Even deeper than that, be wise enough to admit that there is knowledge which you can never know.
Like I said earlier, these ideas carried on through the centuries and into the minds of the existentialists. True ideas tend to do that.
Each existentialist, from the religious to the nonreligious ones, tried to reckon with the fact that there are some things we just don’t know.
What our purpose is, what consciousness is, what happens before we live and after we die…
Maybe, like the existentialists, we should seek worldly answers for all these questions. Or maybe, like Socrates, we ought to see the wisdom in admitting how little we know.
In 2024, there are those who know this. Jordan B. Peterson sums it up in one sentence: “To be wise is to accept the limitations of human knowledge.”
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Brandon J. Seltenrich
P.S.––
To my fellow American friends and readers, have a Happy Thanksgiving. Taking time to think of what you’re thankful for is a truly philosophical practice. Existentialist approved.
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