The Power and the Limits of Reason according to Augustine

Abstract

In this article, we focus on the power and on the limits of reason in Augustine’s thought: How reason, reflecting in on itself and on who the human being is, reveals concomitantly in both the knowledge and ignorance of itself. For Augustine, reason is the highest faculty we possess, it is what makes us different from other animals. Together with memory and will (love), it renders us similar to God. Nonetheless, he also contends that reason by itself is not enough to grasp reality – it even fails to entirely understand itself. To address the reach and limits of reason (and ultimately, the overcoming of itself) in Augustine, we begin by examining his “Quaestio mihi factus sum” (“I became a question for myself”, Confessiones X, xxxiii, 50) and then we revisit some aspects of his inner experience metaphysics. We argue that for him human being in his-/her self-knowledge is as if he/she were ceaselessly removed from, and presented again to him- or herself, in a kind of a hide-and-seek game of “conscience of itself.” He/She sees and does not see his-/herself. It understands his-/herself, but only partially. From the perspective of the knowledge of his-/herself, the potency as well as the limits of reason can be grasped in the light of the relationship of one’s conscience and unconscience of his-/herself and the role of memory.