St. Augustines Political Philosophy Essay Example for Free

St. Augustines Political Philosophy EssaySt. Augustine is a fourth century philosopher whose groundbreaking philosophy infused Christian doctrine with Neoplatonism. He is famous for being an inimitable Catholic theologian and for his agnostic contributions to Western philosophy. He argues that skeptics have no basis for claiming to know that there is no knowledge. In a proof for existence similar to one later made famous by Rene Descartes, Augustine says, Even If I am mistaken, I am. He is the first Western philosopher to promote what has tot to be called the argument by analogy against solipsism there are bodies external to mine that behave as I behave and that appear to be nourish as mine is nourished so, by analogy, I am justified in believing that these bodies have a similar mental life to mine. Augustine believes terra firma to be a uniquely human cognitive capacity that comprehends deductive truths and logical necessity. Additionally, Augustine adopts a subjective view of time and says that time is nothing in reality but exists only in the human minds apprehension of reality.He believes that time is not infinite because God created it. Augustine tries to reconcile his beliefs close to freewill, especially the belief that humans are morally responsible for their actions, with his belief that ones life is predestined. Though initially optimistic about the competency of humans to behave morally, at the end he is pessimistic, and thinks that original sin makes human moral behavior nearly impossible if it were not for the rare carriage of an accidental and undeserved Grace of God, humans could not be moral.Augustines theological discussion of freewill is relevant to a non-religious discussion regardless of the religious-specific words he uses one can switch Augustines omnipotent being and original sin exposition of predestination for the present day biology explanation of predestination the latter tendency is apparent in modern slogans such as bio logy is destiny.