Augustine’s Two Cities and Plato’s Cave: Exploring History and Knowledge
Philosophy of History
Christianity posits that mankind, united in the first man, disobeyed God. Since then, humanity has been caught in a struggle between two loves: love of God (amor Dei) and love of self (amor sui). St. Augustine highlights this struggle between love and pride, sin and redemption, liberty and divine grace. This conflict transcends the natural order, shaping the inner life of each individual, as salvation or eternal condemnation is at stake.
Just as there are those who love God above themselves and those who love themselves more than God, there are two cities founded on these loves: the earthly city and the heavenly city. While both cities anticipate conviction and eternal happiness, throughout history, the civitas Dei (city of God) and the earthly city are in constant conflict.
Some pagans attributed the Roman Empire’s decline to the abandonment of their gods and the rise of Christianity. Christian apologists had already addressed these accusations. St. Augustine, witnessing the fall of Rome, wrote The City of God as a major apologetic work, reflecting on the meaning of history.
Creation implies an ontological link between creator and creature: the world might never have existed, but once it does, there is a creator and creation. The creator has revealed that history will conclude with a final judgment, separating the two cities that have coexisted for centuries. This judgment signifies the ultimate victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and the kingdom of God over that of Satan.
There is a personal story for each individual, as evident in Augustine’s Confessions, and a history of humanity. However, both the beginning and end of these stories are in God’s hands. The state, a natural institution, must ensure welfare, peace, and justice, steeped in Christian values, as all authority comes from God. Simultaneously, the state must support the Church in fulfilling its mission. A state is best established and preserved when founded on faith and harmony, where the highest good, the true God, is loved by all, and people live in concord.
Myth of the Cave
Theme 1
This text, from Plato’s Myth of the Cave, explains his theory of ideas and knowledge. The myth unfolds as a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, reflecting Socrates’ profound influence on Plato, who used dialogue to convey truth. This myth serves a pedagogical function.
The core of this fragment analyzes the statement: “the state in which nature is about education or lack thereof.” Plato uses the cave metaphor to illustrate his theory: inside the cave is the sensible world of things, and outside is the supersensible world of ideas.
Within the cave, or the world of things, people are bound and chained, able only to see shadows projected on the wall before them. Plato highlights a central theme: human ignorance. People are trapped, unable to know what lies behind them (initially). However, Plato suggests the possibility of overcoming this ignorance and moving closer to reality, or knowledge. This possibility is represented by a path leading upwards, and the belief in attaining knowledge defines Plato as an epistemological optimist (like Socrates).
To escape ignorance, those in the cave must be freed and cross the threshold into reality. This is where the phrase about education (or its lack) is interpreted: if these individuals had been educated, they might have been freed from their initial ignorance. However, lacking education, they remain trapped. Plato compares these individuals to all of us.
Plato’s metaphysics rests on the theory of ideas, positing two worlds: the world of things and the world of ideas. The former, identified with the cave’s interior, is sensible, belonging to sense-perceptible things (people, partitions, puppets). It is material, imperfect, mortal, mutable, singular, contingent, and merely copies of the world of ideas. The latter is intelligible, grasped only through the mind. It is immaterial, perfect, eternal, supersensible, immutable, universal, absolute, and contains the models for the copies in the world of things. In short, for Plato, the world of things participates in the world of ideas.
As mentioned, Plato is an epistemological optimist, believing knowledge is attainable. This involves progressing through levels of knowledge: first, knowledge of the ideas of natural things (imagination); second, knowledge of mathematical ideas (belief); third, knowledge of moral ideas (discursive reason); and finally, understanding the idea of good (intuitive reason).
Plato’s philosophy echoes Socrates and the Pythagoreans, who posited something solid and indisputable: for Socrates, truth; for the Pythagoreans, mathematics. In contrast, the Sophists denied any such solid foundation. Plato’s most gifted student, Aristotle, also differed, arguing that ideas exist within things themselves. However, Plato maintained that ideas are the cause of things. Finally, the theory of ideas resolves the problem of change posed by Heraclitus and Parmenides.