ugustine on Learning

(The Teacher)

04

MondayMAR 2013

POSTED BY ANDI S. RASAK IN CHRISTIAN LIFE, EDUCATION, EPISTEMOLOGY, QUOTES

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Augustine, Inquiry, Learning, The Teacher

This article is a response to the book linked here, page 94-146: Against the Academicians
and The Teacher (trans.: Peter King)
What is learning? This question is a perennial one, because human beings from every
culture of all ages need to learn, both for survival and progress. We know that learning
happens, but we do not really understand how it happens. This paper is going to explore
and assess Augustines understanding of learning based on the interpretation of the
dialogue between him and Adeodatus, his son, which is entitled The Teacher. This paper will
not provide an exhaustive interpretation of the text, but only provides the main flow of the
text and the significant portions of it that are related to learning.
The method of interpretation used in this paper is exegetical. It focuses on the text in the
light of its context, particularly the authors philosophical tradition, which is Christian
Platonism (King, 1995, p. vii). The interpretation of the text is also bounded by the genre of
the text. Since the genre is dialogue, we have to interpret the portions of the text in the
light of its end. A conclusion in the middle of the text may not be the final conclusion, as it
often happens particularly in this dialogue. We can only take a conclusion as final if it is not
repudiated in the latter part of the dialogue.
The dialogue starts with the discussion of speaking and teaching. What Augustine meant by
speaking is uttering words in order to teach or remind, although he had not yet defined
what he meant by teaching. It seems that he took a common assumption that teaching is
a general act of conveying information by bringing certain things to mind (pp. 94-95).
From this initial part of the dialogue, he already signaled a sharp distinction between the
external action of speaking and the internal action of praying (pp. 95-96). This dualistic

assumption, which is common in Platonic worldview, runs through the dialogue, as we will
see coming up again later.
It is also interesting to note that Augustine saw words merely as tools for bringing forth
certain things to mind (or re-minding). Internal speaking for him is not properly
speaking, but just reminding self by the means of words (p. 97). He did not foresee the
postmodern discussion of whether words construct thinking. For him, it is unidirectional:
thinking constructs words. The thinker can bring something to his mind with or
without words. Words are not necessary for thinking; they are contingent.
The dialogue continues to talk about words as signs (although signs are not limited to words
only). Words, because of its nature as signs, always signify something. They either signify
other signs or things. Augustine first led the dialogue to the discussion of signs that
signifies other signs. In this discussion, they stumbled upon the problem of two signs that
signify each other, namely word and name. They came into a conclusion that everything
expressed by an articulated sound accompanied by some significate (i) strikes the ear so
that it can be perceived, and (ii) is committed to memory so that it can be known (p. 110).
Note again the dualism between the perceived and the known, the external and the internal.
Word strikes the ear so that the sign can be perceived, but it is the name that brings
about knowledge.
This part of the dialogue is ended by an intermission of Adeodatus summary of what they
had been discussing and Augustines comments on their discussion. One interesting
comment that Augustine said is that they, by inquiry and discussion, unearthed them
(distinctions) from whatever their hiding places were (p. 122). Here he was signaling that
he was relating their discussion to Platos theory of recollection, which says that people does
not acquire knowledge, but just remembering what they already knew (from the state of
disembodied soul) by the means of inquiry and discussion. It is still unclear here whether
Augustine agreed with Platos theory. However, it is important to remember that Christians
by Augustines time had consciously broken the connection with the Greeks (i.e.: Platonism,
Aristotelianism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism) on the account of creation: Christians believe
that God only is eternal, while other things that exist were created out of nothing and
contingent upon Gods existence. The theory of recollection contradicts the Christian faith,
for it assumes the eternity of the soul.
The next part of the discussion widens the theme to teaching without the means of words,
recalling the fact that words are not the only signs that exist (p. 132). Augustine brought
the case of the bird-catcher who (supposedly) taught a man about the meaning of his

equipments. The bird-catcher did not say anything, but he only showed the man how to
capture the bird by using his equipments. What is important to note here is that the man
follows closely in his (the bird-catcher) footsteps, and, as it happens, he reflects and asks
himself in his astonishment what exactly the mans equipment means (p. 134). The birdcatcher also realized that the mans attention focused on him. The keywords here
are reflects, asks himself, astonishment, and attention focused. Without those things, the
bird-catcher would not be able to teach the man. So Augustine concluded that not one or
another but thousands of things that are exhibited through themselves, without any sign
being given. doesnt God or Nature show and display to those paying attention, by
themselves, this sun and light pervading and clothing all things present, the moon and the
other stars, the lands and the seas, and the countless things begotten in them? (p. 135).
By showing this, Augustine made the separation between teaching and learning even
further. Even without teaching, learning occurs.
Therefore, in the last part of the dialogue (which is actually a monologue), Augustine reexamined what teaching is. Do people really teach when they say that they teach? He
concluded that, as words are not necessary for thought, so what we commonly understand
as teaching is not necessary for learning. Speaking about words (the things that we use
when we speak or teach), to give them as much credit as possible, words have force only
to the extent that they remind us to look for things; they dont display them for us to know.
Words only focus our attention to things, so that through them (hopefully) we can inquire to
ourselves and learn. The real Teacher, for Augustine, is inside. From the externals, we can
only believe. However, to acquire knowledge (understood in Platonic sense as justified true
belief), we need to internally inquire the Teacher, Who is said to dwell in the inner man (p.
139).
In this concluding monologue, Augustine also emphasized again the distinction between the
external and the internal: Everything we perceive, we perceive either by one of the bodily
senses or by the mind. We name the former sensible, the latter intelligible (p. 140).
Knowledge, thus, comes through the immediate beholding of the inner light of Truth, or we
can name it illumination. This is the option that Augustine proposed, in place of the theory
of recollection proposed by Plato. He agreed with Plato that learning occurs internally, but
he did not agree with him that the knowledge is acquired from eternity. In the light of
Christian theory of creation, he suggested that it is the eternal God who reveals the truth
through human internal structure (which he called inner man). Human being, in its ideal
condition, should be strong enough to inquire internally about the truth to get certainty
whenever they pay attention to something. However, due to the weakness of discernment,
he cant consult that light regarding the whole matter. Yet he is prompted to do it part-by-

part when hes questioned about the very parts that make up the whole, which he didnt
have the ability to discern. If hes guided in this case by the words of his questioner, the
words nevertheless do not teach him, but they raise questions in such a way that he who is
questioned learns within, corresponding to his ability to do so (p. 141).
From The Teacher, Augustine pointed out a very important truth about learning, that
ultimately it is an internal event. What we acquire externally is only belief, but we can only
be certain that the belief is true by internal inquiry. Therefore, learning is always active and
can never be passive. This places the burden of responsibility for learning on the learner, not
on the (one whom we usually call) teacher. Teacher can help to focus the learners
attention through words, by speaking. However, teacher cannot make a person learn.
Learning essentially starts from the focused attention towards certain things, and then
active internal inquiry that progresses towards certainty. Another application that we can
derive from the text is that teacher can use not only verbal means (by speaking) to focus
the attention of the students, but also other means that engage the students senses.
Although we, in our postmodern era, understand that language affects the way we think, I
believe that Augustines main points in this text are perennially valid and essential for
practice of (human) teaching.
Reference:
Augustine. (1995). Against the Academicians and The Teacher (trans.: Peter King).
Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing.