Lecture 6BMemory and Knowledge

Dr. Ann T. Orlando

Outline

Memory Knowledge Relation to Imago Dei

Memory in Plato and Aristotle

Plato and Reminiscences (Meno and Phaedo)– Sense perceptions lead to ‘remembering’ what is eternal

(good, beautiful, truth)– Learning is really remembering

Aristotle and Memory (On Memory and Reminiscence)

– Memory stores images of sense images (tabula rasa)– Reminiscence orders and processes the sense images held

in memory– No connection to eternal ideas

Augustine and Memory

Memory: the interior ’place’ where ‘time’ is recalled

Memory is the ‘place’ of knowledge– Platonic understanding of ‘remembering’

knowledge as learning

How to ‘remember’ God who is eternal? This is necessary for the Happy Life

Confessions X

What is memory How is human memory different from an animal’s

memory Memory of sin What is forgetfulness Jesus Christ human and divine as Mediator between

eternal and the time-bound– Forms bridge into Book XI, the meditation on time

De Trinitate

Written 399-410; most likely written for himself– Serialized (as was much of his work)– Some of it published before he was ready for distribution

Primary adversary: Arians Tripartite Division

– Books I-IV How to interpret Scripture– Books V – VII Catholic doctrine argued against Arians– Books VIII – XV How we think about God

Augustine’s most speculative work

De TrinitateThe Imago Dei

Note in De Trinitate Augustine traces the inner life of man (anthropology): origins, development, ends

Book X.17-18 introduce concept of Memory, Intellect and Will: the imago Dei

Book XIV.1-11 how the image becomes perfected

Aquinas on MemoryST IIa IIae Q49

First note that for Aquinas, following Aristotle, we know through the senses

Memory, again following Aristotle, in Aquinas becomes a part of prudence (a. 1)

– Memory is based solely on experience in time Understanding is also an aspect of prudence (a. 2) For Aquinas prudence is by far the most important

acquired virtue Note who is completely missing from this discussion

John CalvinImago Dei

The Fall completely destroyed the imago Dei in man– Only Jesus Christ and His grace can restore it– No analogy between human attributes and God

Note arguments against philosophers An example of where Calvin differs from Augustine Institutes I.15, available at

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iii.xvi.html?highlight=memory#highlight

John Locke

Essay Concerning Understanding– Tabula Rasa– Strong empiricism

Role of memory– Place where we store observed data

Read Essay, Book II, Ch 1, “Of Ideas” Available at

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke1/Book2a.html

Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716)

Contemporary of Locke and Newton Lutheran mathematician and philosopher

– But also sees great value in Scholasticism– Wanted to provide philosophical framework to

reunite Lutherans and Catholics Discoverer/inventor of calculus

– Simultaneous with but independent of Newton– Highly disputed then and to this day who was

‘first’

Leibniz Opposition to Locke

New Essay Concerning Understanding– Opposed to Locke– Based on Plato and Augustine– “His has more relation to Aristotle, and mine to

Plato, although we diverge in many things from the doctrines of these two ancients.” 9

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)

One of the most influential philosophers of 20th C Early work as a Catholic theologian

– Breaks with Catholic (scholastic) in 1919; becomes a student of Husserl

Augustine Lectures, 1921 Being and Time, 1927 Becomes as Nazi in 1933; but eventually sent to dig ditches by

Nazis in 1944– Heidegger’s relation to Nazism still very disputed

Along the way he does reject Christianity, or at least accuses Christianity of distorting philosophy, and Greek philosophy of distorting Biblical Christianity

Heidegger, Augustine Lectures

Augustine Lectures written as a commentary on Confessions Book X Heidegger attempts of ‘deconstruct’ the Neoplatonic elements of Book X, to

retrieve the phenomenology of lived Christianity– Heidegger wanted to reconstruct the original lived experience of Biblical Christianity

Specific objections by Heidegger– God as highest good, beauty is not biblical but Neoplatonic– God as experienced in the world is not one of enjoyment, but is found in struggle

The work is preceded by Heidegger’s reading of the analysis of Augustine by Troeltsch, Harnack and Dilthey

– Heidegger says all three tried to “objectify” and historically distance Augustine as an object so study

– He wants to see Augustine as relevant to today, as an example of what we are living Read Heidegger, The Phenomenology of Religious Life, Trans. Matthais Fritsch

and Jennifer Gosetti-Ferencei, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004) pp121-148

Benedict XVI, Regensburgh Speech, 12 Sept. 2006

This is the ‘infamous’ speech that led to consternation and confrontation in Muslim world

Really about religion and science Really, really about opposing dehellenization

(retrieval of Platonism) in Christianity Need for cultural memory Read (optional)

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

Assignments

Memory Augustine,

Confessions, X, De Trinitate 1.1, X.17-18, XIV.1-11

Aquinas on Memory, ST IIa IIae Q49 Calvin on Memory, Institutes I.15, available at

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iii.xvi.html?highlight=memory#highlight

Heidegger, The Phenomenology of Religious Life, pp 121-148