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The Roots of Existentialism in the Augustinian Person

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The Roots of Existentialism in the Augustinian Person KRITIKE VOLUME TEN NUMBER TWO (DECEMBER 2016) 132-150 ARTICLE | Thoughts on Classical Philosophy The Roots of Existentialism in the Augustinian Person John Paulo Juliano Abstract: This paper is an exposition of the existential concepts of subjectivity, despair, and passion within the theoretical framework of the philosophy of Augustine of Hippo or more commonly known as St. Augustine. I will be focusing on Augustine’s central works which are the Confessions, On the Trinity and On the Free Choice of Will. This paper will be divided into two parts. The first part will discuss the basic ideas of the existential approach, centering on the concepts of subjectivity, despair and passion as conceptualized by the early existentialists such as Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. The second part of this paper will expose the different concepts of Augustine that express the fundamental notions of subjectivity, despair, and passion. For this part I will focus on Augustine’s concepts of human dignity, original sin, and the inward journey of the self, which all constitute Augustine’s notion of the human person as a whole. The entire article will also provide deep connections among the mentioned figures of philosophy that center on man and his identity as a subject. Keywords: human dignity, identity, inward journey, existentialism The Development of Existentialism hilosophy in its entire course has dealt with the very aspect of humanity. Its focus, shifting from a curiosity for the cosmos to the P creatures living within it, has laid before itself an interest for man himself. It is in the subject of man that will complete his knowledge. With this in mind, the human individual is constantly searching for his own self-worth: the viability and authenticity of his existence. It is true that man naturally desires the truth, even the truth for himself. Yet this truth is not only the truth of the world around him, but his own truth. © 2016 John Paulo Juliano http://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_19/juliano_december2016.pdf ISSN 1908-7330 J. JULIANO 133 Human individuals are capable of establishing relationships in two ways: (1) the ability to relate to external reality and (2) the ability to relate to oneself. A number of epistemological and metaphysical theories have taught us that to relate to the external reality is to know reality itself.1 As James Collins puts it: “Metaphysics is grounded, however, not in a pretended comprehensive insight into reality as a whole but in the human mind’s ability to recognize that the existent thing is indeed an insistence of being.”2 The human mind is capable of relating to his outside existence, and the relation built by this awareness provides an experience of reality itself not necessarily in its fullness but in a single concrete horizon. It becomes the source of knowledge for the human individual who relates himself with his world. Hence this constitutes the human individual’s first mode of relationship. This form of relationship shall be referred to as the outward journey. Yet there is a mode of relationship deeper than what the outward journey provides. Human individuals are not simply objects in a myriad of existents that constitute reality. A human individual is self-aware, attuned to his internal senses, and is able to grasp the truth that he exists. He is aware of the world and its objectivity, yet he is also capable of knowing himself as a subject. Maurice Merleau-Ponty reflects this truth when he says that “the subject that I am, when taken concretely, is inseparable from this body and this world.”3 The human individual is not simply an object. He is, therefore, a self-aware subject. This is the inward journey. The human individual as a subject is the primary concern of existentialism. Focusing on topics such as the subject and his experience, existentialism centers on the uniqueness of the subject, as something that “exists in a way that is different from other things—such as trees, cultural artifacts and animals.”4 The subject’s manner of existing is different as well as his relating to existence itself. Existentialism is grounded upon the existing, single individual, who is capable of both knowing and experiencing external 1 However, we must make the fundamental distinction that to know reality does not necessarily mean reality in its entirety. Epistemological theories mainly present our acquisition of knowledge, and not the constitution of external reality itself. This problem, therefore, is more grounded upon metaphysics. 2 James Collins, Crossroads in Philosophy (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1962), 42. 3 Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. by Colin Smith (New York: Routledge, 2003), 475. Merleau-Ponty recognizes the fundamental truth of the subject as within a “world.” This world is not to be confused with external reality itself in its entirety. World in this context refers to the immediate, conscious environment of the subject, of which is the agent of experience for the human individual. 4 Kevin Aho, Preface to Existentialism: An Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014), xi. © 2016 John Paulo Juliano http://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_19/juliano_december2016.pdf ISSN 1908-7330 134 THE ROOTS OF EXISTENTIALISM reality.5 It is from this vantage point that the subject as relating to oneself is given primary concern. Existentialism traces back its roots to the thinkers of ancient and medieval thought, the most famous of which is Socrates who is known for his saying “know thyself” (gnōthi seauton). It is important to note that during the rise of Greek philosophy the main focus was the identification of the archē of the universe, or the first sustaining principle of matter. Socrates shifted his focus from the cosmological to the anthropological, speaking of the depth of the individual himself and not merely the immediacy of the cosmos. This trend faded for some time and found itself in the beginnings of medieval thought with the philosophy of Augustine of Hippo whose relevance to existentialism, which is the primary objective of this essay, will be discussed in detail after a brief account of the development of existentialism starting from French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes to the Absolute Idealism of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The development of existential thought continued with the emergence of Cartesian philosophy. He begins with the premise of philosophy as having been “studied for many centuries by the most outstanding minds without having produced anything which is not in dispute and consequently doubtful and uncertain.”6 Descartes’ time was marked by the decline of Scholastic thought and the open opposition to the established teachings of the intellectual authorities (i.e., the clergymen). The fall of medieval supremacy has left everyone in question, and Descartes was acutely aware of this predicament. Thinking is doubtful. The age itself demanded an attitude of doubt. Descartes supported this call for doubt, and radically claimed that to achieve a ‘new science,’ we should apply the method of universal doubt. From this fundamental theory, Descartes posits his most important contribution to philosophy which is the presence of the Cartesian ego. In his work, the Meditations on First Philosophy, he states that in applying the method of doubt “I too undoubtedly exist,” and remarks that “after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.”7 It is from this vantage point that the I has been created by 5 The very famous “subject-object” schema was discussed profusely by several existentialists such as Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The main presupposition of existentialism is that “there is no separation between ‘inner’ and ‘outer,’ between self and the world.” See Aho, Existentialism: An Introduction, 36. Hence, the “subject- object” schema is an essential unity. 6 René Descartes, Discourse on Method, trans. by Laurence Lafleur (New York: The Liberal Arts Press, 1960), 8. 7 René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, ed. and trans. by John Cottingham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 17. The famous dictum cogito ergo sum embodies © 2016 John Paulo Juliano http://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_19/juliano_december2016.pdf ISSN 1908-7330 J. JULIANO 135 Descartes. It is an I that takes as its reference point his capacity for thought. From Descartes’ thinking, two philosophical traditions have been formed: the materialist approach of the empirical tradition, and the idealist attitude of the rationalist tradition. The development of existentialism through Descartes is focused on the rationalist tradition, tracing its lineage from, aside from Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz. The influence of these philosophers has created an attitude known as ‘dogmatism.’ This attitude is primarily linked with the dominance of the rationalist approach, that treats knowledge as something purely of intellectual supremacy. This was the kind of dogmatism that Immanuel Kant possessed in his early years before he became the known thinker he is today. This shift from dogmatism to the transcendental idealism we know of Kant today marks a turning point in the progression of existentialism. The Kantian system, as followed and opposed by its successors, led to the development of yet another important philosophical system: the Hegelian System. Hegel views the subject-object relationship as the perennial problem in western philosophy; and he theorizes that the history of philosophy is really the history of sometimes discordant, sometimes concerted, efforts to arrive at a solution of this problem. Thus in Hegel’s view there is in the strict sense only one philosophical system, historically evolving as it progresses towards this goal.8 It is with this system that the entire existential approach began. Tracing its development from the Cartesian cogito, to the development of rationalism, and later on, to the systems of Kant and Hegel, existentialism as a philosophical approach began to make itself known.
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