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Augustine and the Cognitive Cause of Stoic Preliminary Passionsi ( Propatheiai )
- Journal of the History of Philosophy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 41, Number 4, October 2003
- pp. 433-448
- 10.1353/hph.2003.0052
- Article
- Additional Information
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Augustine made a significant contribution to the history of philosophical accounts of affectivity which scholars have not yet noticed. He resolved a problem with the Stoic theory as it was known to him: the question of the cognitive cause of "preliminary passions" ( propatheiai ), reflex-like affective reactions which must be immediately controlled if a morally bad emotion is to be avoided. He identified this cognitive cause as momentary doubt , as I demonstrate by citing passages from sermons spanning twenty-seven years in which Augustine consistently used a particular set of scriptural images and phrases as precise analogies for mental and affective states.