Memory and Light: A Study in Augustine's Theological Philosophy

Author: Zhou Weicheng
Author Country: China
Editor-in-Chief: Zhu Xinping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-04-01
Features: Dr. Zhou Weicheng's book Memory and Illumination—A Study of Augustine's Theology and Philosophy is a new work that systematically examines Augustine's thought. He offers profound and unique insights into Augustine's "Trinitarian Theology," the concept of "Memory," the doctrine of "Illumination," the theory of "Time," and the theory of "Being." Excerpt: "The Meno Paradox" and "Self-Memory"
Why did he believe that humans are born with "self-memory"? This is also related to the "Meno Paradox" (the paradox of seeking). If Plato used the "Meno Paradox" to "recall" the a priori forms (geometric knowledge and virtue), then Augustine used it to "recall" the self and God, with the self being recalled here. It is noteworthy that Augustine's search for the self is highly similar to Plato's search for virtue in terms of circumstances and methods.
First, in Book 10 of De Trinitate, Augustine, like Socrates in the Meno, through continuous questioning, counter-questioning, and doubt, negates all the "opinions" worth doubting about the soul's self, or, to put it another way, he "suspends" them. At this point, he is in a state of complete "ignorance," a condition achieved after eliminating various "opinions," which both Socrates and Meno had initially been in.
Second, in this thorough "ignorance" of the object, there is also a certain definite "knowledge"—this is our innate "memory," which has always been with us and has now finally emerged. For Plato, this innate memory is "virtue" (a specific example being geometric knowledge), while for Augustine, this memory is "self-memory." He states that when the soul hears "Know thyself," it gains insight, but we clearly know that the soul is not anything else (not as the opinions suggest). More importantly, we intuit our own conscious acts (this intuition is what later philosophy calls "intellectual intuition"). This is certainly known, given, and graspable, and from this act's certainty, we know the subject of the act is myself.