Dictionary of Arguments

Philosophical and Scientific Issues in Dispute

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The author or concept searched is found in the following 7 entries.

Disputed term/author/ism	Author	Entry	Reference
Augustine	Höffe	Höffe I 96 Augustine/Höffe: In Augustine's intellectual development the transition from the pagan philosophy of antiquity, with him: the Stoa, even more so of New Platonism, to the Christian Middle Ages takes place. His work literally shapes the spirit of a new epoch. Probably a Berber by origin, his literary and intellectual development, like that of other North African Fathers of the Church, such as Tertullian (150-um 225) and Cyprian (200-258), lives entirely from Latin culture. Höffe I 97 In (...) the year 373, "seduced" by the "cunning and flattering eloquence" of Bishop Faustus, he joined the Manicheans for almost a decade. In Milan, Augustine heard the learned sermons of Ambrose (340-397), a bishop and ecclesiastical teacher born in Trier, which brought Christianity closer to him again, but did not free him from a Manichaean inclination towards dualistic thinking. >Manichaeism/Höffe. Conversion experience: In August 386 the now 32-year-old has a dramatic experience. Following his confessions (VIII, 12), Augustine takes up the repeated request of a voice: "Take and read" according to the book that is ready and opens a passage from the Epistle to the Romans: "Not in feasting and drunkenness, not in bedchambers and fornication, not in strife and envy; but go to the Lord Jesus Christ."⁽¹⁾ Höfe I 98 Works: In addition to the two dialogues De beata vita (On the happy life, 386) and De ordine (On the order, 386), five other texts are particularly important: the three books De libero arbitrio (On Free Will, Book I 388, Books II and III 391-395), the Confessiones (Confessions, 396-400), the systematic main work De trinitate (On the Trinity, c. 400-425), for political thinking trend-setting De civitate dei (On the State of God, c. 412-426), finally a comprehensive critical commentary on the own complete work, the Retractationes (426). Assessment/Höffe: In his "baptized" New Platonism, reformed from the spirit of Christianity, the pre-Christian, "pagan" knowledge loses all inherent value. Only what serves the Christian culture may remain. Höffe I 99 Enlightenment/Illumination: One of Augustine's highly influential thoughts is the doctrine of illumination, the doctrine of divine enlightenment (illuminatio), without which the human mind cannot recognize anything. This includes the view that, in contrast to ancient Eudaimonism, the guarantor of lasting happiness is not man himself and his polis, but rather only God. VsEudaemonism: In contrast to the Hellenistic, "pagan" philosophers the perfect happiness and highest good (...) is determined religiously, as the eternal peace in God⁽²⁾. This is where the Christian revolution comes to light: the inherent right of the world, the intrinsic value of worldly goods, is abolished; (...). Höffe I 100 Secular life/state: In relation to the personal salvation that is ultimately to be expected in the hereafter (...) the concern for just political institutions of the world of this world appears to be clearly secondary, as if it were extremely subordinate. Even more: Under Augustinian premises a pragmatic-realistic political thinking is as good as impossible. Höffe I 117 Aftermath: (...) [Augustine] influenced in modern times and in Höffe I 118 the present humanists such as Erasmus of Rotterdem (1469-1536). (...) Luther was particularly influenced by his Pauline exegesis and the theology of grace. In the 17th century the doctrine of grace played a role in Jansenism (according to the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen: 1585-1638), whose French centre, the monastery of Port-Royal, was close to Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) (...) adopted Augustine's literary pattern for his autobiography, the Confessions. Karl Jaspers appreciates Augustinus as the only "founder of philosophising between Plato and Kant". Cf. VsAugustine: >Augustine/Voltaire. 1. Paul, Letter to the Romans 13:13 f 2. Augustinus, De civitate dei, On the State of God, Book XIX, e.g. Chapter 27	Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016
Augustine	Thomas Aquinas	Höffe I 145 Augustine/Thomas/Höffe: Thomas AquinasVsAugustine: in the commentary on aphorism, Thomas Aquinas overcomes the Augustinian doctrine which was predominant at that time. >Augustine. In place of a knowledge through enlightenment, a view inspired once again by Aristotle takes its place. >Knowledge, >Cognition, >Epistemology, >Aristotle. According to this view, all cognition starts with sensory perception and is brought into a mental form by the active mind (intellectus agens) through abstraction. >Sensory impressions, >Mind. Thomas per Augustine: Like Augustine, Thomas sees the natural goal of the human mind in the knowledge of God. Here, as in almost all areas, [Thomas'] thinking is theocentric. >God.	Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016
Augustine	Voltaire	Höffe I 118 Augustine/Voltaire/Höffe: VoltaireVsAugustine: "What do the dreams of an African who was sometimes a Manichaean, sometimes a Christian, sometimes licentious, sometimes submissive, sometimes tolerant, sometimes a persecutor mean to us? Höffe: Nietzsche expresses himself similarly disparagingly. (NietzscheVsAugustine). >Augustine, >Nietzsche, >Manichaeism, >Christianity, >Christian Church, >Toleration.	Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016
Happiness	Augustine	Höffe I 102 Happiness/redemption/Augustinus/Höffe: The final salvation, the participation of human beings in extra- and supernatural happiness, depends on the unavailable and unpredictable grace of God. HöffeVsAugustine: On the other hand, the question arises whether an achievement of Christianity, the abolition of all ethnic limitation in favour of all people of good will, is not weakened here, because the ethnic limitation gives way to a selection of grace. >Recognition/Augustine.	Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016
Happiness	Thomas Aquinas	Höffe I 146 Happiness/Thomas/Höffe: Thomas AquinasVsAristotle: While (...) the ethics of his philosophical model remains free of metaphysics and theology, Thomas Aquinas takes up Aristotle's doctrine of the divine mover from Book Lambda (XII) of metaphysics and explains that the complete fulfillment of happiness is only possible in the hereafter. >Ethics/Thomas, >Ethics/Aristotle, >Metaphysics, >Theology. ThomasVsAugustine: In contrast to Augustine's divine state, the happiness of this world is considered realizable and Höffe I 147 desirable, even if it is still surpassed in the "happiness-providing" view of God (visio beatifica dei). >God/Thomas.	Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016
Justice	Augustine	Höffe I 115 Justice/Augustine/Höffe: Augustine does not deny that there are more just and less just communities and rulers. However, true justice, which he considers to be decisive, reigns only in the community whose "founder and leader is Christ"⁽¹⁾. In this eschatological definition lies Augustine's provocatively new concept of the state, which is not without danger for real politics. Eschatology/HöffeVsAugustine: Christian theology is responsible for the question whether Augustine's eschatological dualism is religiously convincing. Considered as law and state thinking, however, it weakens the ability, also the courage, to think in multiple ways and to put the religious teachings of the two conflicting empires into the right measure by a higher intrinsic value of the worldly sphere and a greater personal responsibility of man. For the Two kingdoms doctrine see >State/Augustine. 1. Augustine, The State of God, De civitate dei, II, 21	Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016
Peace	Augustine	Höffe I 110 Peace/Augustinus/Höffe: The first great peace theorist of the Occident is Augustine. According to his Höffe I 111 early works, peace, following the stoic ideal of the wise man, is an inner state of freedom of affect. Augustine does not give up this understanding later, but he makes three important changes. 1) (...) peace [remains] a guiding interest of man and yet should be unattainable in earthly life. Two factors might be responsible, the paradise lost through original sin and the view of a new paradise in the heavenly Jerusalem: In accordance with the basic character of the God-State the decisive, "true" peace is of eschatological nature. 2) in a clear peak against the "pagan" view that human beings can take care of their own well-being, these secondly depend on divine grace also with regard to peace. 3) Peace should reign not only among men but in the whole cosmos, especially as "peace with God"⁽¹⁾. Höffe: the otherworldliness of peace, its dependence on an extraterrestrial power and the relativization of the tasks assigned to politics, is attractive because it gives peace a reach and conceptual richness, a superlative rank. Problem: The eschatological character, however, has the high price of degrading the earthly peace, which man himself is responsible for, to an imperfect image of the only true spiritual peace dependent on divine grace. Höffe I 112 Earthly peace: The relativization of the peace handed over to man is all the more astonishing because, as mentioned above, the God-state is created against the background of an event of outstanding importance in the history of the state, the capture of Rome. [Augustine] knows earthly peace, but exposes it as the peace of Babylon. Although in earthly life there is nothing more longed for than the good of peace (2), since it promises earthly advantages (3), although man strives for peace by all means (4) and although peace is the natural form of living together (...). HöffeVsAugustine: Apart from the disdain for genuine political peace practiced here, a deficit is noticeable in a concept so rich in topics: Interstate peace is missing. 1. Augustine, The State of God , De civitate dei XIX, 27 2. Ibid. XIX, 11 3. Ibid. XIX, 17 4. Ibid. XIX, 12	Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016

The author or concept searched is found in the following controversies.

Disputed term/author/ism	Author Vs Author	Entry	Reference
Augustine	Wittgenstein Vs Augustine	I 272 Language/world/reality/Wittgenstein/Hintikka: we reformulate epistemologically: how can an observer recognize the semantic base-links between language and reality? What is the mode of existence of the semantic relationships between language and the world? WittgensteinVsAugustine/Hintikka: learning the language is not the fact that one acquires a number of different names for different entities, (also VsTractatus) but that one learns the language games. There is next to it no other medium in which they exist.	W II L. Wittgenstein Wittgenstein’s Lectures 1930-32, from the notes of John King and Desmond Lee, Oxford 1980 German Edition: Vorlesungen 1930-35 Frankfurt 1989 W III L. Wittgenstein The Blue and Brown Books (BB), Oxford 1958 German Edition: Das Blaue Buch - Eine Philosophische Betrachtung Frankfurt 1984 W IV L. Wittgenstein Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP), 1922, C.K. Ogden (trans.), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Originally published as “Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung”, in Annalen der Naturphilosophische, XIV (3/4), 1921. German Edition: Tractatus logico-philosophicus Frankfurt/M 1960