The Immortality of the Soul; The Magnitude of the Soul; On Music; The Advantage of Believing; On Faith in Things Unseen

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THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL Chapter 1 UF SCIENCE! exists anywhere, and if it can exist only in the realm of that which lives and always is, and if anything, in which something else dwells forever, must itself always be, then that must live forever in which science exists. If we who reason exist, that is, if our mind2 does, and if correct reasoning3 without science is impossible-and only a Disciplina is here translated as 'science: Augustine (Soliloquia 2.11.19) says: 'The word disciplina derives from discere (to learn): It signifies the knowledge that can be learned: hence (in De immortalitate animae 1.1.) the definition: 'Est enim disciplina quarumcumque rerum scientia: In the text of the Soli/oquia, dialectics is called 'disciplina disciplinarum: As for the Augustinian concept of science. cL J. Geyser. op. cit. 80 fl. E Gilson. op. cit. 18f. and 150 fl. and M, Grahmann , Gnll1dgedanken 91, 102ff. For scie1llia and sajJit'lIlia. d. Schopp• •Der Wahrheitsbegriff: 2 Augustine gives a definition of animus in De quantitate animae 13.22: '[the soul J apparently is a certain substance participating in reason adapted to the ruling of the body: In De genesi ad lit/eram 7. 21. Augustine considers himself unable to give a single adequate term for the human soul. Therefore. one usually finds in his writings the following three terms: anima, animus (borrowed from Varro's De diis selectis; d. De- civitate Dei 7.23.1) and spiritus (taken from Porphyry -d. De civitate Dei 10.9.2.-and from Holy Scriptures). Cf. also "'. O·Connor. oj). cit. 38 If. and Gilson op. cit. 56 n.1. 3 The relation of ratio to ratiocinatio is that of a permanent faculty to its actual use (De quantitate animae 27.52). Ratio means a certain vision of the mind; ratiocillato. a movement of that vision. a search for that which is to he looked upon (De quantitate animae 27.53)_ Cf. also Soliloquia 1.6.13; .Aspectus animae ratio est: For the term ratio in its relation to mens and illtelligelltia, d. also E. Gilson, op. cit. 15 16 SAINT AUGUSTINE mind in which science does not exist can be without science -then science exists in the mind of man. Moreover, science is somewhere, for it exists, and whatever exists cannot be nowhere. Again, science can exist only in that which lives. For nothing that does not live learns anything , and science cannot possibly exist in something that does not learn.4 Again, science exists always. For whatever exists and is immutable must necessarily exist always. On the other hand nobody denies· that science exists. And whoever asserts that only the straight line drawn through the center of a circle is longer than any other line not drawn through the center,O and that this statement belongs in the realm of science, as much as admits that there is an immutable science. Also, nothing in which something else exists always, cannot be but always. Nothing, however, that always is ever suffers the loss from itself of that in which it always exists. And, when we reason, it is an act of our mind; for only that reason which undorstands can reason. Neither the body understands, nor the mind, aided by the body, understands, because, when the mind wishes to understand, it is turned away from the body.6 That which is understood is so always; nothing, however, pertaining to the body is so always.7 Truly, the body is not able to be of aid to the soul in its striving toward understanding, since it cannot even be of hindrance. 4 Cf. Retractationes 1.5.2. 5 Schmitt. op. cit. 359 f.• made a good use of this text. Cf. A. Dyroff op. cit. 23. who adduces the geometrical example in De ordine 1.2.3. 6 Augustine is here under the strong influence of the reality of the Platonic mundus intelligibilis (cf. De beata vita 2.8, wl'ere he enumerates the particular characteristics of reality). Cf. Soliloquia 2.2.3. Worter here points to Augustine's dependence on Plotinus (Enneades 4.7.8). But that Augustine. in later years. recognizes a sound sensual realism. can be drawn from De Trinitate 15.12.21. 7 Cf. Retractationes 1.5.2. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 17 Moreover, no one reasons correctly without science.s Correct reasoning, of course, is the cogitation...