Philocaly as Ground for Philosophical Practice in Augustine
Philocaly as Ground for Philosophical Practice in Augustine
Author(s): Claudiu MesaroşSubject(s): Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophical Traditions
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: Augustine; Plato; philocaly; philosophy; scala amoris; beauty; gift; happiness; wisdom; liberal arts;
Summary/Abstract: Augustine’s opinion on the conditions one must fulfil in order to be able to understand and practice philosophy, namely to become a philosopher, depend on his use of a comparison between philocaly and philosophy that he may have learnt from the platonic tradition. In his Contra academicos and De ordine he discusses these terms showing that philocaly refers to a love for trivial beautiful things that can be coverted into a love for authentic beautiful things, and finally this will be converted into the love for wisdom or philosophy by liberal arts. There are three stages of love for beauty: love for the trivial beauty, educated love for attested beautiful things, and love for beauty understood as wisdom. Augustine applies this discussion to his friends and dialogue partners, Licentius and Romanianus, making it a subject of practical philosophy or philosophy as a program for life.
Journal: Philosophy, communication, media sciences
- Issue Year: 4/2016
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 266-275
- Page Count: 10
- Language: English