Augustine's Philosophy: Soul, Happiness, and Knowledge

The Soul's Pursuit of Happiness and Divine Union

Being the Sushumna body, it is made up by the soul, and the soul is also part of him and constitutes hope, longing, and delight. In regard to pleasure and delight, Augustine came to view them as the greater source of human action. When Saint Augustine seeks God, he seeks happiness and understands that, just as the body lives by the soul, the soul lives by full union with God. God is true happiness, for God is real and adds a softness greater than any pleasure. Sweet happiness is the last resting place, which is why it is understood as the immense good for which we sigh; it is the enjoyment of peace. This happiness was indeed supreme, but it could not be expressed by words; it was inwardly enjoyed and sung. The human being is created by God in His image and likeness, made up of body and soul. The soul is like God and God's image, so that God resides in the body, the soul.

Faculties of the Soul and the Trinity

The body gives life itself, but it is the soul that speaks of life's three faculties of the body. Augustine's soul (memory, intellect, will) are an image of the Trinity in us, and the three constitute a single life, a same mind, and the same fundamental substance. The memory of the soul is serious, the intellect is serious, and the soul's love is associated with the will.

Immortality and Creation of the Soul

According to Saint Augustine, the soul is immortal; it is something "divine," and if it can capture an indestructible truth, it is itself indestructible. According to Saint Augustine, we welcome the Platonic idea of the preexistence of souls, but he did not accept that these join a body as punishment. The soul is created by God, but it is unknown how and when.

Augustine's Theory of Knowledge

According to Saint Augustine, the human soul has three faculties: memory, will, and knowledge. Thanks to memory, humans can capture their own privacy and build their personal identity; memory allows for inner life and opens the way for inner seeking. Knowledge, for Augustine, is the ascent from within oneself towards the absolute truth, which is identified with God. Therefore, self-reflection is a starting point and the initial instrument to achieve truth. One can distinguish various kinds of knowledge:

• Sensitive: Obtained through information from the senses.
• Intelligible: Like science, it is the knowledge of sensitive and mutable realities.
• Wisdom: The direct contemplation of the models of things, necessary, immutable, and eternal truths.

The Will and the Pursuit of Happiness

The will is the 'to will,' which pushes humans in their search for happiness.