Philosophical Perspectives of the Self: Medieval Philosophy PDF

Philosophical Perspectives of the Self: Medieval Philosophy Medieval Philosophy 500 AD to 1350 AD Theo-centric From the scientific investigation on nature, search for happiness, philosophical views shifted to the question of life and salvation in another realm or a better world (af...

Philosophical Perspectives of the Self: Medieval Philosophy Medieval Philosophy 500 AD to 1350 AD Theo-centric From the scientific investigation on nature, search for happiness, philosophical views shifted to the question of life and salvation in another realm or a better world (afterlife), therefore, a lot of the philosophical perspectives of the self were an attempt to merge philosophy and religion. More imposing than informing, because it was trying to aim at paganism and barbarism. St. Augustine Was a philosopher and bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa. His synthesis of Platonic and Christian concepts was a major influence in the development of medieval Christian doctrine and Western philosophy. Influenced by Plotinus and Plato. Integrated Plato’s philosophical concepts with the tenets of Christianity. Eventually adopted Plato’s belief of a bifurcated universe where there are two realms, in which there are two realms, an intelligible realm where truth itself dwells (the eternal realm of the Forms), and this sensible world which we perceive by sight and touch (physical realm). Plato (and Socrates): eternal/ideal realm = Augustine’s philosophy: a transcendent God. In the same way, Plato’s vision of immortal souls striving to achieve union with this eternal realm through intellectual enlightenment, became transformed by Augustine into immortal souls striving to achieve union with God through faith and reason. Meanwhile, the transient, finite nature of the physical world described by Plato became in Christianity a proving ground for our eternal destinies. Like Plato (and Plotinus), Augustine believed that the physical body was both radically different from and inferior to its inhabitant, the immortal soul. o Early in his philosophical development, he describes the body as a cage for the soul, where he considers the body a “slave” to the soul, and sees their relation as contentious: The soul makes war with the body. o However, as his thinking matured, he developed a more unified perspective of the body and soul: the body as the “spouse” of the soul, with both attached to one another by a natural appetite. Therefore, his view on the self or the “man” is more unified. The human person becomes the whole with both body and soul. “For although the soul and body are two things, and neither would be called a “man” if the other did not exist (for neither would the body be a man if the soul did not exist, nor in turn would the soul be a man if a body were not animated by it.” For whether both, or only the soul, takes the name of “man,” the best thing for the man is not what is best for the body, rather, what is best for the soul and body together, or for the soul alone, that is best for man. Therefore, man, as he appears to man, is rational, immortal and earthly soul using a body. References Balah, K.O., Garcia, K.J., Llorente, J. (2020). Learning Module in Understanding the Self Chaffee, J. (2016). The Philosopher's Way. Pearson Education