The discovery of mens and the unity of self-cognition in St. Augustine's 'De Trinitate' X.

摘要

Guided by the purpose of demonstrating the divine Trinity within the human mind, De trinitate X is an exercise of philosophical obedience to the Delphic precept, "Know Thyself!" In light of current scholarship, this thesis situates book X in a polemical context against the sceptical denial of self-knowledge and corporealist epistemology. My exposition follows Augustine's rigourous argument whereby the mind discovers itself. On the basis of its immediate self-presence, the mind knows itself (se nosse) in a total, inamissable, and absolutely certain unity of its intellect, life and being. But the mind's fallen condition is such that its ability to think itself (se cogitare) is partial, erroneous, and thus inconstant in discerning its true nature. This discrepancy remains an unresolved problem in book X. For Augustine, the unity of self-cognition is ultimately a question of the mediation of the human mind and God, in whose image it was made.