
Lecture Description
The epistemology of Augustin led naturally to his understanding of the central importance of faith, not only as related to religious devotion, but also with respect to the entire idea of knowledge and learning in any discipline. For Augustin, 'faith precedes reason,' or as he put it, 'I believe in order to understand.' This axiom is not to be taken as warrant for credulity or gullibility, but rather as an explanation of how some type of belief must precede any learning experience at all.
Course Index
- Introduction to the Major Themes of Philosophy
- The Ionian Philosophers
- The Italian Philosophers
- The Athenian Pluralists
- The Life and Times of Socrates
- Introduction to Plato
- Plato's World of the Forms
- Plato's Parable of the Cave
- Dualism in Plato
- Introduction to Aristotle
- Aristotle's Metaphysics
- Aristotle's Categories
- Aristotle's Theory of Language
- Aristotle's God
- The Epicureans
- Stoicism
- Philo of Alexandria
- The Christian Synthesis
- Early Christian Apologists
- Antiochan Christianity
- Alexandrian Christianity
- The Council of Nicaea
- Manichaeism
- Neo-Platonism
- The Life of Augustine
- Overview of Augustin's Thought
- Augustin's Epistemology
- Augustin's Epistemology (part 2)
- Augustin's Theory of Faith
- Augustin's Understanding of the Church
- The Pelagian Controversy
- The Pelagian Controversy (cont)
- The Pelagian Controversy (concl)
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Anselm's Cur Deus Homo
- Introduction to the Classical Synthesis
- The Classical Synthesis (part 2)
- Thomas Aquinas and the Five Ways
- Art, Philosophy, and the Renaissance
Course Description
This wide ranging course starts with the pre-Socratic philosophers of the ancient world, and traces the history of philosophical speculation across the ages up to the present. Included along the way is special attention to the greatest Christian thinkers in history, including Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and many others.