Augustine and the dialogue about the order of all things

 

Beforehand

For a long time I intended to give attention to this subject of the order of  all things. It is a theme that in Augustine's thought forms the basis of his philosophy of life and spirituality.

I believe that it is also an issue that is still topical. Gradually, the subject turned out to be too extensive to cover in one article. That is why I will initially confine myself to his dialogue about The Order. In doing so, I broadly follow the translation by Cornelis Verhoeven and, where necessary, the original text.

The reason

The Dialogue on the Order is written by Augustine shortly after his conversion, in late 386 and early 387. At that time he had just given up his profession as a teacher of rhetoric, partly for reasons of health, but also in order to devote himself entirely to philosophy. To this end, he was offered the opportunity to work on a Cassiciacum estate near Milan, owned by a close friend

 He has not completely turned his back to his teaching. This is evident from the fact that he immediately surrounds himself with a number of young people whom he wants to initiate into what he has found to be true philosophy. The fact that he gave up his profession of rhetoric after his conversion does not mean that he renounced rhetoric as one of the liberal arts. The opposite is more true.

The seven liberal arts

Augustine considered rhetoric, along with the other liberal arts,  seven in number, to be very useful for the knowledge of philosophy, but also as an important source for knowing God. He was convinced that not only following the Biblical revelation, but also reflecting on the order of the universe, can lead man to God.

Of the liberal arts or sciences of the time, three were concerned with the order that comes about through the word, viz. Grammar, rhetoric and dialectics, the latter of which we now call logic, the art of developing a train of thought. The other four had as their subject the order that comes about through the number, namely: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and finally music, a subject that we would now call the theory of harmony. Basically, all these subjects were always about the search for unity.

 The importance of science

Because of the importance of these sciences for the faith, he conceived the plan between his conversion and his baptism to compile a kind of encyclopaedia, in which the entire content of the classical ideal of formation would be included in his newly acquired Christian vision. But because he was called to the office of bishop in 391, only a few years later, this scientific project only got off the ground partially. The dialogue on order is one of the few remaining parts of it.

 The name liberal arts already indicates that this was a different concept of science than the one we know today. If science is now practiced primarily for its practical usefulness, it was then also directed to a higher purpose, namely to give insight into the beauty of what one studied. The liberal arts opened up the  world as a work of art.

For Augustine, this knowledge provided the opportunity to ascend from the beauty of these material subjects to their immaterial background. They helped him determine that in the universe, everything from the lowest to the highest was ordered and obeyed precise laws. This covered the whole area between the cycle of the planets and the wondrous organism of a flea.  This coherence and order in the universe had logically to lead to the conclusion that everything had one cause, one undivided principle of order.

The question of order turns out to be complex

One wonders why Augustine immediately brought up this subject with his newly recruited pupils. For beginners in philosophy, this is a complex subject and the rest of the dialogue shows that they quickly lose track and that Augustine has to intervene. In fact, therefore, the last part of the dialogue culminates in one long monologue by Augustine. From this it may be inferred that he himself considered the order of things to be a subject of primary importance, a basic concept on which all his philosophy and ethics were built.

 What made the subject so complex was the fact that in this ordered whole there were negative elements that seemingly contradicted a perfect order, such as the evil in the world and the suffering from it. From this you could conclude that God, as the maker, would not have everything in control and that chance and chaos would have come to dominate. Or otherwise that committing evil would have been willed by God. That would in either case undermine faith in a good and just God.

 The dialogue about order is a theodicea

The dialogue on order, therefore, is intended to combat any doubt as to whether God is the superior principle of the universe. Such a scripture that is supposed to justify God is called a theodicea. It turns out that there was a need to answer this problem. The dialogue begins with a message to a friend, a certain Zenobius, whom Augustine had asked in poetry to clarify the problem of evil in the world.

To his friend, he argues that doubters of the perfect beauty of the universe are like people who look at only one small part of a mosaic floor and, on the basis of this limited perception, reproach the maker for not having an understanding of order and composition.

This argument assumes that man, from his limited position in time and space, is incapable of overseeing and appreciating the whole and beauty of the universe. This means that it is premature to make a definitive judgement on something that is only partially known.

 Order as a work of art

It is remarkable that here the universe is compared to a work of art. For Augustine, however, who repeatedly refers to God as beauty, this view is obvious, because beauty can only produce beauty. In that case, the concept of beauty must be revised, because how can one call the universe beautiful when it is clear to everyone that there is much bad and ugly in it?

 To explain this, Augustine compares the current universe to a large painting in which the creator uses dark tones as well as light tones. This comparison implies that in the present constellation, evil is a necessary element to carry out the maker's plan. Good and evil here form a unity of opposites. Good would not have its value if evil were not opposed to it.

How do you gain insight into the order?

But if man, in view of his limited position in time and place, does not succeed in seeing the total plan, in which evil is also necessary, he will either lose faith in it or resign himself in good faith to the fact that this order remains hidden from him.

Augustine, however, chooses a different path. The mere belief that this hidden order will one day be revealed is not enough for him. He also believes that man should, as far as possible, strive to gain insight into this hidden order.

 According to Augustine, the main reason why man does not succeed in this is that he is a stranger to himself. In order to gain insight into the order of things, it is necessary to leave the sensory world and turn inward. In contrast to the habit of focusing on what is outside, it is a matter of concentrating inwardly and forcing oneself to remain in that center, away from the multitude of impressions and opinions that can scatter. That is the condition for focusing on the one.

After all, the word universe means unity-oriented. It is derived from the Latin unum and versus. Such a concept presupposes a certain hierarchical order from top to bottom, with a point of unity as the extreme. Augustine compares the constellation of the universe to its center to that of a circle, where each point or segment has its position and relationship to that one center. And although all the parts possess a certain unity, they derive their existence only from that center. The essence of this relationship therefore also applies to human beings. If he wants to understand the order of things, he must seek that center and find that unity within himself.

The philosophy of Plotinus

All this is very much related to the philosophy of Plotinus, whose writings in a Latin adaptation of Marius Victorinus were also read in the meetings at Cassiciacum. According to Plotinus, the whole of reality originated from one primordial unity, which he calls the One, called in Greek ἕν, which philosophically denotes perfect being. People and things are in matter fanned out in a multitude of beings, but their destiny is to return to their original unity, that is, the immaterial being. For Augustine, the perfect unity that Plotinus speaks of coincides with the God of whom the Bible speaks. Hence, he seeks God in the order of things, which is seen as a reflection of God's perfect unity.

 To understand more of this order, Augustine mentions, as already said, the practice of the free sciences. These can contribute to more philosophical insight. This study of the liberal sciences ultimately served to come to the realization of a transcendent order that underlies those areas. Augustine's educational goal was to bring his disciples from these material areas to the realization of an immaterial spiritual area, to metaphysics so to speak.

 Closely related to this was also the introspection in oneself necessary. Those who got to know themselves also got to know their origins and vice versa. Augustine had elaborated this in his  Soliloquia. It was about knowing the soul and god as the ultimate perspective of the soul.

 It is not my intention to follow the whole content of the dialogue very closely. In the long run, the young participants can do little more than turn around the problem of evil in the order, creating a kind of stalemate. That is why Augustine finally decides to take the word himself and continue the discussion at a higher level.

 The Way of Authority and the Way of Reason

He then distinguishes between two ways to gain insight into the divine order: the way of authority and the way of reason. These paths are not separate, but complementary. If one is inexperienced, the way of authority will be the way to go. That authority is based on the experience of exemplary individuals, who have studied God and the soul thoroughly. In their souls the eternal divine law is, as it were, impressed.

Although the path of authority is the way of most believers, Augustine also sees the way of reason as a higher value for understanding. Hence his emphasis on study and turning inward.

The Function of Reason

He formulates reason, in Latin ratio, as follows: it is the movement of the mind by which we are able to discern and connect in everything we learn. This formulation is rather general, and Augustine will discuss it in more detail in the sequel. In any case, the unifying power of reason shows that in the multiplicity of phenomena it is looking for unity and therefore for order. If you start from the above definition, it turns out that reason is a faculty that is always in the process of ordering. It separates what it observes and connects it into a unity with what has already been observed.

Augustine attributes the fact that few come to the understanding of the divine order along this path of reason to the fact that most people, once they have stepped outside themselves and engaged within the material world, find it difficult to return to their inner selves. Although they think they are arranging everything according to reason, they hardly know what reason is and what its nature is. That may be surprising, he says, but it is true.

The study of the seven liberal arts, therefore, should help to understand the true ordering nature of reason. Augustine realizes, however, that this kind of study is not for everyone. This understanding can also be obtained in a more intuitive way. He takes his mother Monica, who had little schooling, as an example. At the very least, however, the question of unity must be asked and the strength of unity recognized.

 In fact, the liberal arts come to the same realization in a different way. Whether you take the sciences of language or the sciences of numbers, it will eventually turn out that their underlying structure can be traced back to numerical relationships.

It is good to realize that the word ratio, which is translated into English as reason, originally means calculus, calculation. Derived from this,  reason has become the ability to reason, the instrument for building up a frame of mind, and more particularly the ability to reduce something to numerical relations.

Reason and number

Even more than the word, which is to some extent tied to matter, Augustine sees number as eternal and divine. After all, the number is not determined by time and space. The sum of one plus one always and everywhere remains two. The awareness of numbers does not come from our counting, but our counting becomes possible from this innate awareness of the unit of numbers.

That is why Augustine comes to the conclusion that reason is nothing but a number and therefore has a timeless and immortal character. After all, reason was not more true yesterday than it is today, and even if the world were to collapse, it is impossible that reason would no longer apply.

Reason naturally seeks unity

Reason, then, is the principle of unity, which is very hidden in the spirit. It is a dynamic faculty that seeks pure unity in everything. In doing so, it distinguishes and weighs the extent to which things correspond to that perfect unity and the extent to which they must be incorporated into a newer, higher unity. Hence its connecting character.

 In her search she will not rest until she has found perfect unity. However, that unity will never be found in the material world. She will always find imperfect reflections there. Only when it transcends all material things and comes to introspection will it be able to find the source of unity.

Reason is immortal and therefore seeks God's perfect beauty

It becomes clear that Augustine sees reason as the immortal part in man, the faculty by which the soul can ascend from the lower to the higher, from the mortal to the immortal. The introspection will lead to the soul being able to develop order and beauty within itself as well. Only then does she qualify herself to behold God's beauty.

Once the soul has perceived something of that perfect divine order and beauty, she will be less disturbed by the vicissitudes that befall her in the place where she stands. She'll know that nothing can happen that isn't with God.

In God's order, every part matters

Even today, the soul is determined by the limitations of time and space. From this it will have to conclude that it has an overview of only a part of it and that the whole of which it is part has a greater value.  But she will also discover that her part in that order fits wonderfully. For in God's order, as Augustine concludes, each part is as beautiful and perfect as the whole.