Augustine's Inner Dialogue: The Philosophical Soliloquy in Late Antiquity PDF
Preview Augustine's Inner Dialogue: The Philosophical Soliloquy in Late Antiquity
This page intentionally left blank Augustine’s inner DiAlogue Augustine’s philosophy of life involves reviewing one’s past and exercises for self-improvement. Centuries after Plato and before Freud he invented a “spiritual exercise” in which every man and woman is able, through memory, to reconstruct and reinterpret life’s aims. Brian stock examines Augustine’s unique way of blending lit- erary and philosophical themes. He proposes a new interpretation of Augustine’s early writings, establishing how the philosophical soliloquy (soliloquium) has emerged as a mode of inquiry and how it relates to problems of self-existence and self-history. The book also provides clear analysis of inner dialogue and discourse and how, as inner dialogue complements and finally replaces outer dialogue, a style of thinking emerges, arising from ancient sources and a reli- gious attitude indebted to Judeo-Christian tradition. brian stock is emeritus Professor of History and literature at the university of toronto. His previous publications include The Implications of Literacy (1981) Augustine the Reader (1996) and Bibliothèques intérieures (2005). Augustine’s inner DiAlogue The Philosophical Soliloquy in Late Antiquity BriAn stoCk cambridge university press Cambridge, new York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape town, singapore, são Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge university Press The edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, uk Published in the united states of America by Cambridge university Press, new York www.cambridge.org information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521190312 © Brian stock 2010 This publication is in copyright. subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge university Press. First published 2010 Printed in the united kingdom at the university Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data stock, Brian. Augustine’s inner dialogue : the philosophical soliloquy in late Antiquity / Brian stock. p. cm. includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-19031-2 (hardback) 1. Augustine, saint, Bishop of Hippo. 2. soliloquy. 3. Monologue. 4. self. 5. spiritual exercises. i. title. br65.a9s68 2010 270.2092–dc22 2010022034 isbn 978-0-521-19031-2 Hardback Cambridge university Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. In memory of Pierre Hadot and for Ilsetraut Hadot Contents Preface and acknowledgements page ix Augustine of Hippo (354–430): dates in his early career xi List of abbreviations xii introduction 1 1 toward inner dialogue 18 2 soliloquy and self-existence 62 3 order and freedom 121 4 narrative 181 Conclusion 229 Index 233 vii
Description:The list of books you might like
