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KNOWLEDGE AS A HUMAN NECESSITY IN AUGUSTINES WRITINGS
Abstract
An intellective and convulsive spirit (in Madura and Cartage, where he attended his secondary studies, and also in Milan, where he attended Platonist circles), Augustine passed from the knowledge of the sensible world to that of the intelligible, irrevocably fascinated by wisdom perceived as a modus vivendi. He aspired to happiness, yet he did not fully understand it until he was able to know himself. By gaining self-knowledge he understood that there is someone, beyond himself, who helped him discover himself as a cognizant subject. Thus, the certainty of self-knowledge became the premise of the Truth and the Supreme Good (Summum Bonum) for which he yearned in order to receive peace in comprehensive love. The rhetoric teacher from Milan explained the possibilities of understanding the supreme Truth as the source of knowledge. Knowledge is one of the human necessities, as faith is necessary to understanding (credo ut inteligam) the meaning of existence. The mind enlightened by faith passes from the sensible things of life to the knowledge of intransient truth. The souls anxieties disappear in as much as man finds rest in the Truth perceived as source and finality of all knowledge.
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