“St. Augustine of Hippo” in “2021 Literary Criticism Dictionary” on Manifold

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

by Erez Ben-Akiva

Saint Augustine of Hippo was a 4th-century Christian philosopher. He was born in the Roman city of Thagaste, now present-day Algeria. In his younger years, Augustine was in fact an adherent of Manichaeism (an ancient Persian religion) and subsequently Neoplatonism (a religious form of Platonic philosophy that focused on mysticism). Later however, Augustine was baptized and thus converted to Christianity in Mediolanum (present-day Milan) at the age of 31.

Through his philosophical writings, Augustine combined Christian dogma with Neoplatonism. Nevertheless, his teachings - for example, those surrounding free-will and predestination - are entirely relevant to non-religious philosophy despite the religious context Augustine consistently utilized. Some scholars even identify Augustine’s Christian theology as the roots of modernity. Among other things, Augustine greatly influenced the field of semiotics (the study of signs and symbols). Namely, he argues in On Christian Doctrine that signs are crucial to the process of creating knowledge. Augustine also differentiates between two different types of signs: natural ones and conventional ones. According to Augustine, natural signs are signals that convey meaning despite potentially not intending to do so (like the signals of a plant or animal or the symptoms of an illness), whereas conventional signs are those intentionally created by humans such as words, gestures, and various man-made symbols. He further states that words are merely signs to denote something else and that signs the way by which one conveys feelings, thoughts, and perceptions.

Primary Reading:

Augustine, Saint. On Christian Doctrine. Liberal Arts Press, 1977.