St. Augustine's "Confessions"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that St. Augustine considers knowledge to be separate from senses and the meaning of concepts separately from the sound of their vocalization; he concludes that knowledge does not enter people but has always existed in people - a very Platonic idea. The author points out that, in the recent Stephen King movie "Dreamcatcher", the protagonist retreats into his memory, which visualizes the ideas, which St. Augustine discusses so poetically at the beginning of the eighth chapter of his book "Confessions". The paper challenges everyone to think about the world of memory and about the world of experiencing God, who is somehow not of the world known by people: If people find God, or love, or hope, or truth in their memories, it belongs to them, but it is not really theirs to experience.

From the Paper:

"At once his thoughts return to God, and this is a very important moment because in his fear and wonderment he has a moment of ecstatic doubt -- in this infinite interior, where is God? He recalls that even animals have memories, even they must have this kind of landscape, and animals (he thinks) do not have a relationship to God. If his self is distinct from his memory self, is it possible he does not really know all the things his memory-self seems to know? Can he know God? He worries that he must transcend the barriers of memory to find God, and yet he cannot even look for God if he cannot remember what he is looking for." This leads, through association, to the idea of looking for the "happy life."

More papers on St. Augustine's "Confessions":

• Book Review # 6159 : "St. Augustine, The Confessions (Book II)"
• Analytical Essay # 140338 : "A Critical Analysis of "The Confessions of St. Augustine"
• Essay # 71769 : "St. Augustine"
• Book Review # 95271 : "Confessions by St. Augustine"

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