Education in the Cosmos: Augustine&#x27;s Platonic Curriculum of Philosophy and Rhetoric

Hull, Stephany

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Year:: 2021
Contributor:: Hull, Stephany (creator); Pucci, Joseph (Advisor); Harvey, Susan (Reader); Conant, Jonathan (Reader); Brown University. Department of Classics (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Physics; Ethics; Rhetoric, Ancient; history of education; Plato; Timaeus (Plato); Philosophy, Ancient; Metaphysics (Aristotle); Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430; Dialogues, Latin (Medieval and modern); Dialogues (Plato); Cicero, Marcus Tullius; late antiquity; cassiciacum; Autobiographies; Neoplatonism; Plotinus; Pythagoras and Pythagorean school; Logic; mnemotechnics
Extent:: , None p.

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Abstract:: This dissertation offers a re-reading of the work of Augustine of Hippo as a case study of philosophical and rhetorical education in the Greco-Roman world. The aims of this project are twofold: (i) to re-assess the relationship rhetoric and philosophy, often perceived as antagonistic disciplines in ancient education, and (ii) to highlight the extent of how Augustine’s expertise in classical rhetoric and philosophy shaped his corpus from the earliest works through his final writings as a Christian bishop and theologian. This study revolves around close readings of Augustine’s Cassiciacum dialogues, emphasizing their relationship to a wide range of sources: Cicero, Plotinus, and Plato, other philosophical treatises, handbooks of rhetoric and dialectic, and Augustine’s later corpus, including the Confessions and De doctrina christiana. The picture which emerges is one in which Augustine styled himself a “Platonis aemulus,” an emulator of Plato, to a much greater extent than has been appreciated. Augustine’s dialogues, and indeed his larger corpus as presented in his Retractations, follows a narrative of metaphysical ascent developed by the Hellenistic and Neoplatonic arrangers of Plato’s corpus. This narrative centers upon the idea of the unity and providence of the cosmos and serves as the fundamental paradigm for the educational curriculum as evidenced in the Cassiciacum dialogues. There, Augustine combines the mechanics of philosophical and rhetorical education, rendering them inseparable: for him, to teach philosophy at the beginning level is to teach rhetoric. Augustine repeats this ascent narrative in later works, which speaks to its enduring influence on his thought. Moreover, the way he uses it is deeply implicated in the wider tradition of Platonic emulators. Augustine’s educational program should be seen as one which competes with that of other philosophers. As such, this study lays the groundwork for further exploration of how philosophers like Aristotle, Cicero, and Augustine’s late antique contemporaries also used this ascent narrative as a framework for the combination of philosophical and rhetorical education. Too often, we imagine Augustine as a great thinker in a vacuum: in fact, he is an exemplary link in a chain of ancient curriculum which extends far before and after him.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2021

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Hull, Stephany, "Education in the Cosmos: Augustine's Platonic Curriculum of Philosophy and Rhetoric" (2021). Classics Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:tqzpx3c3/

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Classics Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Classics department.
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Education in the Cosmos: Augustine's Platonic Curriculum of Philosophy and Rhetoric