From Awareness to Activity: The Development of the Active Theory of Sensation in Augustine's Early Works
The aim of this article is to provide an account of the development of Augustine’s theory of sense-perception in his early dialogues. First, I will compare two of Augustine’s early discussions on sense-perception that are found in De quantitate animae (387/388) and De musica (387/391), and determine...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Peeters
2019
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| In: |
Augustiniana
Year: 2019, Volume: 69, Issue: 1, Pages: 7-27 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Augustinus, Aurelius, Saint 354-430, De quantitate animae
/ Augustinus, Aurelius, Saint 354-430, De musica
/ Perception
/ Senses
/ Soul
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBE Anthropology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The aim of this article is to provide an account of the development of Augustine’s theory of sense-perception in his early dialogues. First, I will compare two of Augustine’s early discussions on sense-perception that are found in De quantitate animae (387/388) and De musica (387/391), and determine the development in his theory of sensation that occurred between the two works. Then I will contextualize Augustine’s theory of sensation in relation to its philosophical background, thus aiming to account for Augustine’s motives and philosophical assumptions behind the development of the theory. The conclusion of this article is that Augustine’s theory of sensation developed from a largely Plotinian view in De quantitate animae, which sees sensation as the soul’s rather "passive" awareness of bodily affections, into the theory of De musica book VI. In the latter work, sense-perception is seen as an interplay between sensory affections and the soul’s attentive reaction to them, which makes the relationship between the soul and the external world more reciprocal than before. This in turn implies a more fundamental change in Augustine’s way to see the relationship between the soul and the external world. |
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| ISSN: | 2295-6093 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Augustiniana
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2143/AUG.69.1.3286700 |