Abstract
Augustine of Hippo marks the boundary between the Hellenistic world and medieval Christendom. He created a new Platonic synthesis of Christianity and Hellenistic philosophy, characterized by a dual creation, hylomorphic biology, and a subjective human soul with both intellect and will. Augustine supported the idea of animal souls and some equivalent organizing principle in plants. His interpretation of invisible seeds and kinds within the invisible creation set up future problems for interpreting biological kinds. His formulation of will and intellect along new, subjective lines changed epistemology and ideas of human identity. It also set the groundwork for Cartesian dualism.
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Notes
- 1.
The plain sense is, in some cases, clearly misleading, as when Genesis speaks of day and night before the creation of the Sun. See commentary in Augustine (1982, vol. 2, pp. 9–12).
- 2.
In full, Two Books on Genesis Against the Manichees and On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis, an Unfinished Book. Both are in Augustine (1991).
- 3.
Note that plants, stars , and angels all present difficulties for such a simplistic hierarchy of value.
- 4.
See also The Nature and Origin of the Soul I, 19–20.
- 5.
“invisibly, potentially, in their causes as things that will be in the future are made, yet not made in actuality now.” Latin: “Invisibiliter, potentialiter, causaliter, quomodo fiunt futura non facta.”
- 6.
It is worth noting that Augustine followed Aristotle in saying that plants and (non-human) animals die and so reproduce themselves in pursuit of eternity. Originally, humans were capable of both reproduction and immortality, but because death was not certain, they had no strong drive toward sex and reproduction . This changed in the Fall (XI.32.42). See also V.23.44–46. The concept of primordial reasons is present in the Stoic literature. The Latin term rationes seminales is a direct translation of the Greek λόγοι σπερματικοὶ.
- 7.
God can make new individuals at any time, but all kind s are made in eternity (De Genesi, 5.20). Augustine did not comment on whether species may arise late in time or go extinct. Woods (2009) argues against species arising but seems to ignore his own admonition that the creation of species occurs in eternity and, therefore, there need be no temporal gap in which a species does not exist. Nor is God’s manifestation of a species in time, of necessity, limited to the earliest days.
- 8.
Taken from the Colleran 1950 translation, quoted in Goetz and Taliaferro (2011, pp. 32–33).
- 9.
Matthews (2000) points out that this conclusion is not necessary. Heidegger and Wittgenstein both provide famous critiques of the Cartesian version, while Buddhism and other Asian philosophies do not even subscribe to the basic categories.
- 10.
This idea draws on the phantasia or imagination in Aristotle , likely through the mediation of Origen .
- 11.
Strictly speaking, the motion caused by vegetable and animal souls can be seen with the senses. By this motion we know the principle of motion behind it must exist as well (On the Trinity, 8.6.9). The intellect is required to perceive the ordered regularity of the kinds and invisible seeds .
- 12.
In the same section, he specified—whether they exist potentially or actually—cyclopes, hermaphrodites, antipodes, skiopodes, pigmies, the mouthless, the headless, the short-lived, and those with dog -heads; so long as they are rational and mortal animal s, they are children of Adam.
- 13.
De Genesi XI.32.42. This loss resulted in corrupted vision and a desire to reproduce. Augustine ’s early works suggest that it also brings about mortality (Against the Manichees II.21), though his position becomes more sophisticated in later writings. In De Genesi, humans are potentially immortal in creation, but not actually immortal until the second resurrection . Note that death has come from sin, but mortality is simply the juvenile state of humans; maturity brings immortality (De Genesi VI.22–23.33–34). See City of God XIII.3 for an intermediate view.
- 14.
Compare City of God 21.10, where humans suffer the fire of punishment in their earthy bodies, while demons suffer in airy or spiritual bodies.
References
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Mix, L.J. (2018). Invisible Seeds: Life-Concepts in Augustine. In: Life Concepts from Aristotle to Darwin. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96047-0_9
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