 Neoplatonist’s believed human perfection and

happiness were attainable in this world,

LESSON 3: Understanding the Self without awaiting an afterlife. Perfection and
(Augustine and Desertes) happiness—seen as synonymous—could be
achieved through philosophical contemplation.
All people return to the One, from which they
AUGUSTINE AS NEOPLATONIST emanated.
 It argued that the world which we experience
 Augustine made extremely valuable use of his is only a copy of an ideal reality which lies
Neoplatonic predecessors in his writing of the beyond the material world.
Confessions. He not only used their  The One – Plotinus taught that there is a
philosophy, he used it to expound on his own supreme, godlike, totally transcendent One
ideas of God and meshed the two together into containing no division, multiplicity or
a more coherent and wider ranging theory than distinction. The One is beyond all categories
either had been before he altered them. of being and non-being. The One isn't a thing
 As a Neoplatonist, and later a Christian, or a person; it isn't the sum of all things; and it
Augustine believed that evil is a privation of isn't sentient or self-aware.
good and that God is not material. Perhaps  Plotinus' Three Principles: The One, The
more importantly, the emphasis on mystical Intellect, and The Soul.
contemplation as a means to directly encounter  Plato's metaphysical ideas bear a close
God or the One, found in the writings of resemblance to the Christian theology. In
Plotinus and Porphyry, deeply affected Republic, Plato provides his explanation how
Augustine. people acquire knowledge and also
 Augustine describes his encounter with explanation how different material things
Neoplatonism as turning him away from exist. Both Platonism and
materialism and introducing him to the idea Christianity understand the human soul as
that the world can be divided into two realms: naturally calibrated for pursuing questions of
the sensible-material and the intelligible- the divine. Platonism tends to ascribe evil to
spiritual. ignorance. Christianity tends to ascribe evil to
 Augustine was Neoplatonic, especially in the sin.
subjectivity of his doctrine of illumination—in
its insistence that in spite of the fact that God ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
is exterior to humans, human minds are aware
of him because of his direct action on them
(expressed in terms of the shining of his light  Aquinas holds that the human intellect is
on the mind, or sometimes of teaching) and immaterial and that because it is, the human
not as the result of reasoning from sense soul of which it is a power survives the death
experience. of the body. And that is more than enough to
 Augustine wants to follow the Neo-Platonists, make him a dualist as “dualism” is generally
and to identify man with the soul only, even understood today.
though the soul has a necessary connection to  Both emanate from Thomas Aquinas's
a material body substance dualism. The soul's superior dignity
constitutes human dignity because of the soul's
intellectual nature. The body, the soul, and the
NEOPLATONIST & PLOTINUS person are human and have a dignity inasmuch
as the soul is superior to the body.
 Plotinus is considered to be the founder  From this perspective, Aquinas views persons
of Neoplatonism. Taking his lead from his as material substances whose
reading of Plato, Plotinus developed a souls emerge from the unified relationship
complex spiritual cosmology involving three of form and prime matter. So rather than
foundational elements: the One, the beginning life with a self comprised of a
Intelligence, and the Soul. material body and an immaterial soul, as the
 Neoplatonism is a thought form rooted in the Platonists contend, Aquinas believes that life
philosophy of Plato, but extending beyond or begins with the inseparable union of form and
transforming it in many respects. matter, gradually giving rise to the conscious
Neoplatonism developed as a school of self as we know it.
thought in the Roman Empire from the third to
the fifth century of the common era (C.E.).
  Descartes advocates substance dualism; he
 The key to understanding Aquinas’s
claims that matter and mind are two wholly
position on human persons as emergent separate substances. The main property of
material substances is his claim that the matter is that it has spatial extension, which
human soul is the substantial form of the the mind does not. The main property of mind
human being. is its capacity to think – it is a substance
defined by its function.
 Descartes argues that the mind is indivisible
because he cannot perceive himself as having
RENé DESARTES any parts. Bodies are defined by Descartes
as things which have extension. Since minds
are not identical to any bodies, minds do not
 René Descartes is often credited with have extension.
being the “Father of Modern Philosophy.”  Whilst Plato divides multiple powers and
 French philosopher René Descartes helped responsibilities amongst none omnipotent
develop the principles of rationalism, a Gods, Descartes described a scenario where
seventeenth-century philosophical movement. there is a self-responsible, omnipotent and
Today Descartes is remembered as a father of omnibenevolent being who is responsible for
modern philosophy as well as a pioneering all tangible properties in the universe.
mathematician and scientist.  Dualism holds that reality or existence is
 The method of doubt is used to find beliefs divided into two parts. These two parts are
that can serve as a foundation for knowledge. often identified as the body and the soul. To
Only beliefs that are certain, immune from dualists, the soul is a real substance that exists
doubt, can perform this function. Descartes independent from the body. Socrates, Plato,
argued that what we believe on the basis of the and Augustine were all dualists who believed
senses cannot meet the standard. the soul to be immortal.
 Rationalist school of thought. He is often
considered a precursor to the rationalist school
of thought, and his vast contributions to the
fields of mathematics and philosophy,
individually as well as holistically, helped
pushed Western knowledge forward during the
scientific revolution.
 They believed that all knowledge comes to us
through the senses. Descartes and his
followers argued the opposite, that true
knowledge comes only through the application
of pure reason.
 The problem with Descartes' standard for
knowledge is that almost no beliefs meet it.
Descartes thought he could show how our
ordinary knowledge claims are ultimately
based on the Cogito, but most philosophers
have not been convinced by his case.
 Descartes's first principle is that his own mind
exists. Existence of a perfect being (God) One
of Descartes's arguments: Existence is a
perfection. So, the idea of a perfect being
includes the idea of existence.