Augustine of Hippo, theorist of private property. The issue of material goods in the Confessions of St. Augustine, a large part of a Platonic
possession or ethics in the thought of Augustine of Hippo
by Nicolas
Madelenat di Florio
From the Society of Literary History of France.
Research Associate at
Centre for Research in Economic Ethics,
Université Paul Cézanne.
To Jean-Yves Naudet, in memory of exchanges on the thought of that great philosopher,
C. A, because history keeps us-or should-do the folly.
But there are other wings than those that man attaches to blades to overcome gravity, there are the wings, where they are more resistant and more flexible than the Man seeks the heart when the heart is placed high in the mind, as this spirit is noble reputation, to overcome the ignorance of contemporary, malice the jealous and the blindness of the ignorant, those wings then they raise it, they remove it beyond the time of the injustices that are watering, to transport in advance, in imagination, to Future summits repairer where inebriated soul visionary sees and redden on the snow finally melted and the indifference and disdain, reflections, forever glowing, sun next to the Glory!
Robert de Montesquiou, Major and Minor , Precursors and behind.
It is customary to consider Plato thought of as the inspiration flows socialist or Marxist. This error, widespread, based on a simple habit: to confuse the rejection of materialism with the condemnation in principle of all forms of possession and therefore de facto private property. Is to demonstrate the invalidity of such confusion that I wanted to present here the report, strong, between St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, one of the greatest philosophers of Christian thought and the thought of Plato. This demonstration will rely on several fronts: firstly, putting forward a point often ignored, namely that Augustine is among the first to have theorized private property, then, that Plato was not a Communist before the time and that his thinking is opposed to such trends before they even exist, just as he opposes socialism future. Paternity is therefore illegitimate and impossible. Finally, that Plato did not invent the primary rejection of materialism, but it is only a marker of the thought of his time and the time preceding; disciple of Socrates, and inspired by the cynics . Carrefour so happy for the historian of thought and ideas, as it stands at the junction of the father of philosophy as a doctrine of life and death (confer on Trial Socrates as the founding of the philosophical community) and follower of his doctrine, with slightly different approaches from those of cynical philosophers (School founded and supported by Antisthenes, marking the third disciple of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle) but have also greatly inspired School stoic. Plato's thought is therefore naturally irrigate the thought of Augustine, which will then watering Christian thinkers. Ignore Saint Augustine of Hippo is therefore to dismiss centuries of intellectual tradition and also a large part of Christian thought.
Economists do not know often, and here I can only stress again the oh so exciting culture of the academician Jean-Yves Naudet, but the economy was well beyond the periods considered modern. Socrates, already spoke of ethics and trade. In line with one of his teaching methods (Socratic dialogue) to teach, explain, convey and convince the father of philosophy often used allegory or fable. A famous example, although most "recent" was given by a Dutch philosopher Bernard Mandeville in his famous text The fable of the bees (1714). In this illustration of life in society, the author demonstrates how the excesses led to the loss of any society. The example has not been chosen at random. But back to St. Augustine. In the Confessions the author will give a very detailed way, a kind of autobiography. Ill critical place in the line of future biographers writers like Montaigne or Rousseau. It fails the philosophical significance of Socratic dialogue. For Augustine of Hippo does not speak alone, but is addressed to God: "Lord , wipe yourself my secret spots, and forgive the mistakes foreign your servant. I take my trust in your goodness, that's why I have my appeal. You know, Lord, is it not true that I accused myself for my crimes, and that you have forgiven the wickedness of my heart, I enter into condemnation with you which are the truth; me who am but a lie, I do not want to flatter "(Augustine, Confessions , Book I, Chapter V.). So there, throughout the book, a double interest in knowing how to analyze his soul, and to move towards God, ie to the Ethics, perfect order, the ultimate balance of the person, and present doctrine to be his. This idea is confirmed when he confesses sinned (t) so when a desire for the pleasant rather than useful, I prefer the lie to the truth, or rather talk, which I hated it, and liked this one (Augustine, Confessions , Book I, Chapter XIII). In this chapter, the process of the fable is sentenced to discretion, quickly, and will also be the subject of Chapter XVI of Book One, whose title is unequivocally Against shameless fables. Chapter XIII describes in fact the requirement of the masters of Augustine to make him learn the fable, Greek, describing the journey of Aeneas and Dido's suicide, his wife, tired of hope for his return. The illustrious moralist thus uses this example to demonstrate the excesses of sentimentality and indiscriminate loss of his inner compass guided sensible man during his lifetime. Ethics is all powerful here, namely that life should be respected above all (Dido would prevent suicide). The fable, as such, does not fall within the scope of ostracism given by St. Augustine as seen in Chapter XVI of Book One: I do not accuse the words, which are vases of precious and innocent, but the wine of error which we presented it, and if we did not drink, we do it without whipping was permitted to appeal a judge sober. We find the use of metaphor, fable, and this is the key to this, in Chapter IV of Book II, tellingly His larceny. Private property is defined by an interesting technique, namely by the transgression, so your Truly divine law, as well as the other natural that malice will never erase from our hearts, condemned the theft, because even although everything has a love for which resembles that of all the thieves suffers another? This defect is even odious, as the richest in the world would not allow the most needy took anything that belongs to him. And then to present, through images, which he considers worse than anything, however some injustice there to steal, I wanted to make a flight, and I did, not by compulsion of any need but by a loathing of fairness and an excess of wickedness. We can easily judge, because I snatched, not what I did at all, but what I had in abundance wishing to enjoy the only injustice of my sin, without stopping its subject matter. His larceny is very simple, it will fly with a few companions, pears on a nearby tree. Yet the double scope of action is obvious: on the one hand, he steals, he condemns with private property as a law of natural right, according to the will of God, on the other, he steals something he does not, for the sake of committing a reprehensible act. Thus, (...) to pick the pears, which we performed by comparing large loads to give pigs. What if we did test one of those pears, it was only to do what we were forbidden. The relation to ethics is extremely strong since possession is not enough, there is that desire for transgression of a rule-based sacred.
Yet having to itself, this is the sense of ownership (owning own ) is not unethical, St. Augustine has never condemned the fact that another has a headstand. He also insists on enough responsibility for their comrades who will steal fruit from another. It is the appropriation of the fruits, and a higher degree of guilt is reached when we know they do not need it, which is sin, condemned the act. This idea is found in Plato, very clearly, saying therefore when other desires, this hornet buzzing around [Man] in a profusion of incense, perfumes, wreaths, wine, and all the pleasures found in similar companies, feed it, do grow up to the last term, he and implanting the sting of envy, then the chief of the soul, accompanied by dementia, is transport took furious, and if he puts his hand on opinions or desires held wise and still keeping some shame, he kills them or expelling them from his home until what he has purged his soul and is filled with crazy foreign (Plato, The Republic ). In sum, the possession of material goods is not unethical, immoral or struck by any company (except for future socialists and Marxists, which it seems they are now also find justification for their heinous schemes). The only part of the degraded soul, struck the bucket of sin, corruption is the unbridled pursuit of possession, namely have to possess. Wealth is not an abomination search enrichment either; what is wrong is not to be guided by ethics but by a thirst, inconsiderate and domineering, alienating therefore, always wanting more, for no reason. Condemn what Plato and St. Augustine, this is not to have, but to stop being in favor of the objects possessed. And that, it seems, what the risk to human capital, which is why each of us, leaving aside any other consideration, must above all be concerned and seek to cultivate this, to see if it is able to know and discover the man who will give him the ability to discern and science good and bad conditions, and to choose always and everywhere the better, as far as possible. By calculating what is the effect of the elements discussed above, taken together and separately, on the virtue of a life he knows good and evil that comes a certain beauty, united either poverty or the richness and accompanied by a particular provision of the soul. (...) So that by bringing together all these considerations, and not losing sight of the nature of the soul, he can choose between a bad life and a good life, calling it bad that ultimately result in the soul more unjust, and good one that would make it fairer. (Plato, Republic )
The issue of possession is very important, and Plato, and in St. Augustine. It would be interesting now to present, briefly, a relatively simple historical fact, that we must approach this with Socrates and Ethics, and property as may be corrupting the human soul. For if one recognizes the sanctity of clean, even the character of natural law as stated in St. Augustine, we should not deprive him of the terrible part-cons, ie the risk that the corrupt desire, by In this way, the person. And to avoid this, Socrates is said to advocate a disregard for material things when they are placed in the balance of Ethics. The most striking example of this choice is to have preferred death to escape. Ethics deserves that he sacrificed his body and his life just as it can not be bought by money proposed by the Apology of Plato, a friend of the Master, to do release. Thus formed a scale, a yardstick to measure which situations. And remember, too, that the decision, after reflection, in conscience, allow only the ethical act. Without choice, no decision in conscience therefore not an ethical act. We find the dominance of the Ethics in Antisthenes, third disciple of Socrates, founder of the School cynical for him, the inner compass to guide the wise man should accompany him constantly throughout his life. It is in this idea, presumably, that will frame the demon of Socrates, it was considered to accompany him everywhere and show where an election was needed to assist in the decision, by enlightening. There is no concept of creation by Plato, or Augustine, but simply a flow of ideas, values, unparalleled spurt from a single source, the centrality of human must hold in any system, philosophical, economic, political, and moral. Keeping in mind that the world is still if born evil and so lost, that excites men to vice, so it is shameful not to be infamous ( Augustine, Confessions , Book I, Chapter XIII), whereas it is therefore more than ever, letting the demons in the shadow of our fears and trust again, this internal compass to guide us in charge.
(an astute reader will notice that the quotes are not in their entirety, placed in italics and this is not a typographical error but respect, careful, presentation of study text)
