1. Lecture 6B Memory and Knowledge Dr. Ann T. Orlando

2. Outline Memory Knowledge Relation to Imago Dei

3. Memory in Plato and Aristotle Plato and Reminiscences (Meno and Phaedo) – Sense perceptions lead to ‘remembering’ what is eternal (good, beautiful, truth) – Learning is really remembering Aristotle and Memory (On Memory and Reminiscence) – Memory stores images of sense images (tabula rasa) – Reminiscence orders and processes the sense images held in memory – No connection to eternal ideas

4. Augustine and Memory Memory: the interior ’place’ where ‘time’ is recalled Memory is the ‘place’ of knowledge – Platonic understanding of ‘remembering’ knowledge as learning How to ‘remember’ God who is eternal? This is necessary for the Happy Life

5. Confessions X What is memory How is human memory different from an animal’s memory Memory of sin What is forgetfulness Jesus Christ human and divine as Mediator between eternal and the time-bound – Forms bridge into Book XI, the meditation on time

6. De Trinitate Written 399-410; most likely written for himself – Serialized (as was much of his work) – Some of it published before he was ready for distribution Primary adversary: Arians Tripartite Division – Books I-IV How to interpret Scripture – Books V – VII Catholic doctrine argued against Arians – Books VIII – XV How we think about God Augustine’s most speculative work

7. De Trinitate The Imago Dei Note in De Trinitate Augustine traces the inner life of man (anthropology): origins, development, ends Book X.17-18 introduce concept of Memory, Intellect and Will: the imago Dei Book XIV.1-11 how the image becomes perfected

8. Aquinas on Memory ST IIa IIae Q49 First note that for Aquinas, following Aristotle, we know through the senses Memory, again following Aristotle, in Aquinas becomes a part of prudence (a. 1) – Memory is based solely on experience in time Understanding is also an aspect of prudence (a. 2) For Aquinas prudence is by far the most important acquired virtue Note who is completely missing from this discussion

9. John Calvin Imago Dei The Fall completely destroyed the imago Dei in man – Only Jesus Christ and His grace can restore it – No analogy between human attributes and God Note arguments against philosophers An example of where Calvin differs from Augustine Institutes I.15, available at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iii.xvi.html?h ighlight=memory#highlight

10. John Locke Essay Concerning Understanding – Tabula Rasa – Strong empiricism Role of memory – Place where we store observed data Read Essay, Book II, Ch 1, “Of Ideas” Available at http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/lo cke/locke1/Book2a.html

11. Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) Contemporary of Locke and Newton Lutheran mathematician and philosopher – But also sees great value in Scholasticism – Wanted to provide philosophical framework to reunite Lutherans and Catholics Discoverer/inventor of calculus – Simultaneous with but independent of Newton – Highly disputed then and to this day who was ‘first’

12. Leibniz Opposition to Locke New Essay Concerning Understanding – Opposed to Locke – Based on Plato and Augustine – “His has more relation to Aristotle, and mine to Plato, although we diverge in many things from the doctrines of these two ancients.” 99

13. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) One of the most influential philosophers of 20 th C Early work as a Catholic theologian – Breaks with Catholic (scholastic) in 1919; becomes a student of Husserl Augustine Lectures, 1921 Being and Time, 1927 Becomes as Nazi in 1933; but eventually sent to dig ditches by Nazis in 1944 – Heidegger’s relation to Nazism still very disputed Along the way he does reject Christianity, or at least accuses Christianity of distorting philosophy, and Greek philosophy of distorting Biblical Christianity

14. Heidegger, Augustine Lectures Augustine Lectures written as a commentary on Confessions Book X Heidegger attempts of ‘deconstruct’ the Neoplatonic elements of Book X, to retrieve the phenomenology of lived Christianity – Heidegger wanted to reconstruct the original lived experience of Biblical Christianity Specific objections by Heidegger – God as highest good, beauty is not biblical but Neoplatonic – God as experienced in the world is not one of enjoyment, but is found in struggle The work is preceded by Heidegger’s reading of the analysis of Augustine by Troeltsch, Harnack and Dilthey – Heidegger says all three tried to “objectify” and historically distance Augustine as an object so study – He wants to see Augustine as relevant to today, as an example of what we are living Read Heidegger, The Phenomenology of Religious Life, Trans. Matthais Fritsch and Jennifer Gosetti-Ferencei, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004) pp121-148

15. Benedict XVI, Regensburgh Speech, 12 Sept. 2006 This is the ‘infamous’ speech that led to consternation and confrontation in Muslim world Really about religion and science Really, really about opposing dehellenization (retrieval of Platonism) in Christianity Need for cultural memory Read (optional) http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speec hes/2006/september/documents/hf_ben- xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

16. Assignments Memory Augustine, Confessions, X, De Trinitate 1.1, X.17-18, XIV.1-11 Aquinas on Memory, ST IIa IIae Q49 Calvin on Memory, Institutes I.15, available at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iii.xvi.html?h ighlight=memory#highlight Heidegger, The Phenomenology of Religious Life, pp 121-148