Augustine: On the Trinity Books 8-15

A new edition of Augustine's influential philosophical and theological treatise.

Augustine (Author), Gareth B. Matthews (Edited by), Stephen McKenna (Translated by)

9780521796651, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 July 2002

268 pages
21.3 x 15 x 1.7 cm, 0.42 kg

'This book is well worth reading not only as an impressive display of the intellectual powers of a giant of western thought, but also as a reminder that the middle ages were not the philosophical desert that so many contemporaries seem to think they were.' Practical Philosophy

An appropriate motto for Augustine's great work On the Trinity is 'faith in search of understanding'. In this treatise Augustine offers a part-theological, part-philosophical account of how God might be understood in analogy to the human mind. On the Trinity can be fairly described as the first modern philosophy of mind: it is the first work in philosophy to recognize the 'problem of other minds', and the first to offer the 'argument from analogy' as a response to that problem. Other subjects that it discusses include the nature of the mind and the nature of the body, the doctrine of 'illumination', and thinking as inner speech. This volume presents the philosophical section of the work, and in a historical and philosophical introduction Gareth Matthews places Augustine's arguments in context and assesses their influence on later thinkers.

Book 8
Book 9
Book 10
Book 11
Book 12
Book 13
Book 14
Book 15.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Medieval & Renaissance, c 500 to c 1600 [HPCB]