O papel da razão no conhecimento do sensível (ciência) em Santo Agostinho

Abstract

The present study is a master's thesis based on a bibliographical reference in which the following works were used as main sources: Against academics, De libero arbitrio and De trinitate de Santo Agostinho. Its main purpose is to analyze the role of reason in the knowledge of the sensitive (science). What is intended is to understand how the process of rational knowledge occurs in relation to what Augustine called science, knowledge of the sensible world. At the outset, a problem is presented that refers to the question of the possibility of knowing the truth, present in the Contra academicos. Refuting skepticism, Augustine begins his philosophical reflection with the affirmation of the existential self or self-consciousness as the first apodic truth. Taking as its guiding principle this presupposition, in the book II of the Contra academicos, Augustine writes about the three realities perceived directly by man: Being, life and reason. And the channels that enable knowledge are the outer senses, the inner sense and the reason. For Augustine, the highest thing in the human nature of the soul is reason. Considering these concepts, it also penetrates other themes such as: sensation and memory. In addition, in the books XII of De trinitate, Augustine, after exposing how human knowledge is given, presents human reason divided into two levels: inferior reason (science) and superior reason (wisdom); science is conceived as the knowledge of human things, wisdom, knowledge of divine things. Science as knowledge of the sensible world, as Augustine presents, reveals his concern not to dispense with the material world in his philosophical reflections. This epistemological deepening brings a balance to Augustine's theory of knowledge, still today identified with the theory of enlightenment. It is the importance of deepening this theme, bringing to light, aspects not yet sufficiently addressed in the epistemology of St. Augustine.