AUGUSTINE

Should this saint and Father of the Church also be considered a Socratic philosopher? Matthews (philosophy, U. of Massachusetts) finds compelling reasons to believe so. He begins by examining philosophy conducted in the frame of the Augustinian first-person voice, and then works through the life of Augustine to locate him within philosophy. Matthews then describes Augustine's thought on skepticism, language, cogito, other minds, dream problems, evil, lying and happiness, comparing his views with the Socratic model. Matthews includes analyses of the dualism of the mind and the body, faith and reason, time and creation, and predestination and free will. He ends each chapter with a list of further readings. His notes serve as his bibliography. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gareth B. Matthews is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts. His publications include Socratic Perplexity and the Nature of Philosophy (1999), The Augustinian Tradition (ed., 1999) and Augustine: On the Trinity – Books 8–15 (ed., 2002).