Q64 ~ The Confessions contains an explicit analysis of memory and is itself a book of memory. What is the analysis of memory that Augustine provides in Book X? What particular features of the previous nine books does the analysis illuminate?

64.  The Confessions contains an explicit analysis of memory and is itself a book of memory. What is the analysis of memory that Augustine provides in Book X? What particular features of the previous nine books does the analysis illuminate?

RW: Old outlines solid on the analysis of memory.  They diverged on how it illuminates the previous books (I gave you all their options, so you could pick what resonates with you).  Slightly reorganized, and supplemented from Cambridge Companion.  Sorry for length; it’ll be 2.5 pages when you pick at the end.  J

I)     Intro

A)   Setup

1)    Context in Confessions

(a)   Augustine’s analysis of memory is found in Book X, after his intellectual and religious conversions, and in the context of his Confession of his present.  In the passages, he is asking where is the God that he loves.  He does not find God in the external world, the power of soul that vivifies and governs the body, or the power of soul bringing sensations to the interior sense.  He turns to memory.

(b)   This is a typical Augustinian move from exterior to interior, and from interior to superior

B)    Overview

1)    Memory is broader than mere recollection, and includes present and future in a sense.  Memory contains sensory images, thoughts, notions of affections, memory itself, forgetfulness, and God (in a sense).  Time is a distension of memory.  Various illuminations offered (you pick).

C)    Map

1)    The scope of memory

2)    The content of memory

3)    Memory and time

4)    Illumination of Books I-IX

II)   The Scope of Memory

A)   Memory is broader than the recollection of certain facts or the capacity to bring to mind various recollections of the past or what one has learned.

B)    Threefold function of memory

1)    Memory of the past

2)    Intuition of the present (holding in mind present realities)

3)    Expectation/anticipation of the future

III) The Content of Memory

A)   Sensory images

1)    Of sensible things

2)    We don’t know these things themselves, only images of them.

3)    Augustine encounters himself through memory of his past actions and the images of the things he has perceived

B)    Intellectual thoughts themselves

1)    Of intellectual things (e.g., grammar rules, math, thoughts); things Augustine learned in the liberal arts (e.g., questions: does it exist?  What is it?  What are its properties?)

2)    We know the things themselves, not images of them.

(a)   We retain not only the sounds of the words, but the meanings that they signify

(b)   Not taken into the body or memory by means of any bodily sense

3)    These things were in the mind before they were learned, but are covered and removed, hidden from us in the depths of memory

(a)   So, learning/thinking is a matter of gathering together what is scattered in the memory

4)    Likewise, memory contains principles, laws and numbers

(a)   To learn these things is to recognize the truth, and to put them in the memory in a way that is more easily accessible

(b)   None of these are perceived by the bodily senses either

(c)   These require that Truth (God), reside in the memory (see below)

C)    Affectional notions

1)    Four general affections

(a)   Desire, fear, joy and sadness

2)    What of the affections is in the memory?

(a)   Not the affections themselves, nor the images of the affections, nor merely the sound of the words

(b)   Rather, the “notions” of them

(i)    They can be called up and be present to mind without any actual present perturbation of the mind (e.g., can recall joy without feeling joyful)

(ii)  They can be defined in discussion

(iii) Memory is the “stomach” of the mind – affections stored there, without being tasted, but can be brought up later for rumination and further thought.

(i)    The analogy breaks down a bit when we think that even the cud of sorrow should have some tinge of the affectation in order to know what we’re talking about.

D)   Memory and forgetfulness

1)    Memory is present to itself.

2)    We remember forgetfulness (in a sense)

(a)   Forgetfulness itself isn’t present in memory. We would then be forgetting, not remembering.

(b)   Yet Augustine remembers forgetfulness, whereby memory is destroyed.

E)    God (in a sense)

1)    Is God beyond memory? 10.17

(a)   If so, God is not in our memory. 10.18

(b)   If God is not in our memory, we wouldn’t know to look for God. 10.19

(i)    We cannot look for God if we have completely forgotten God, as recognition of something requires that that thing is, at least partially, in memory.

2)    God, happiness, and memory

(a)   Everyone knows to look for happiness. 10.20

(b)   Happiness is in the memory unlike sensible things, intellectual things, and affections. 10.21

(c)   Obj:Happiness is associated with joy. 10.21. Rep: It isn’t the same thing. 10.22

(d)   Everyone looks for happiness associated with truth. 10.23

(e)   If we remember any truth, we’re remembering God, who is Truth. 10.24

(f)   *So, we do look for God (by looking for happiness in accordance with truth).

(g)   *So, God is in our memory. 10.24

(i)    How? Not anywhere *in* the memory. That’s to put God in a place. 10.25

(ii)  Answer: By knowing the truth, we know God. 10.26

3)    Conclusion about God and memory

(a)   God is outside memory, in a sense

(i)    He is not in memory as an image, the mind itself, or as an affection

(b)   Yet, God is in memory, in a sense

(i)    Ambiguous

(ii)  God deigns to dwell with falsehoods, in spite of the mind’s mutability and imperfection

IV) Memory and Time (Book XI)

A)   Time is a distension of memory

1)    Neither past nor future exist

2)    Yet past, present, and future exist in the mind’s present memory of the past, present intuition of the present, and present expectation of the future

V)   Illumination of Books I-IX

A)   I’m not super clear on this – Take which ones you like!

B)    My list

1)    The past is present, in a sense.  Augustine employs memory to retrieve, retraverse, and represent who he once was. Memory makes present the story of Augustine's life and conversion, in order that it may be offered as a living sacrifice of praise, reflecting his due gratitude to God for the sake of inspiring his neighbor.

2)    God was present throughout Augustine’s life.  Augustine’s search for God, taken as his life-project, reveals to him that God was always present.  God “deigns to dwell” in his memory with falsehoods.  If God is willing to dwell in Augustine’s mind, which is changeable with changeable impressions and affections, God was willing to dwell with Augustine throughout his past life.

3)    God and happiness.  The analysis of memory and the search for happiness shows how Augustine’s desire for happiness was not fulfilled (and couldn’t be fulfilled) by various disordered loves: women, rhetoric, companionship, Manicheaeism, etc.

4)    Affections and the stomach of the mind: This analysis clarifies how Augustine can presently feel sorrow in remembering his past sinful joy (e.g., over stealing pears, sexual escapades, etc.)

C)    Nate Jackson’s list

1)    The memory of his past is present to Augustine.  His sacrifice and literary endeavor, then, is a present, “living sacrifice” to God, which brings Augustine closer to God, and inspires the reader.  The text is not about events that have passed and are totally unreal; rather, the text is about events that are in some sense present.

2)    The analysis of the search for happiness shows how his desire for happiness was not fulfilled by various disordered loves (his lusts); women, rhetorical skill, companionship, Manicheaeism, and astrology

3)    He re-collects himself, his actions and affectations.  In doing so, we can appreciate how Augustine can feel sorrow at his joy in, say, stealing pears, or sleeping with the common law wife, or fighting Pelagius

D)   Chris Tweedt’s list

1)    His search for God, taken as his life-project, reveals to him that God was always present.  God “deigns to dwell” in his memory with falsehoods.  If God is willing to dwell in Augustine’s mind, which is changeable with changeable impressions and affections, God is willing to dwell with Augustine throughout his past life.

2)    Augustine’s thinking of God incorporeally led him to God.

(a)   If God is corporeal, God is in a place.

(b)   God is not in a place, even if that place is his memory.

3)    As Augustine came to know the truth, he came to know God (so eventually convert)

(a)   Against Manicheans

(b)   Against astrology

(c)   Against the academics

4)    As Augustine came to desire happiness more, he came to fully accept the truth, so God.

(a)   Against his lust

5)    (Perhaps) Since Augustine now knows God fully, he’s able to know the truth fully, so would say true things about God in the first nine books.

E)    2009 list

1)    Kept trying different ways. Only when he found God was the desire fulfilled.

2)    Wanting to love and be loved.  But desires ordered wrongly.  Only when ordered properly did he realize God was there all along. 

(a)   Manicheans, Astrology, Academics, sensual pleasure.  Women, friends.

3)    Looking for God in his memory, where was he all along?  The ability to search is God (illumination or something like it). 

4)    Collection of himself, his actions, emotions.  Self-Reflection through memory.

F)    Nice quote from 2009

1)    Here he employs memory to retrieve, retraverse, and represent who he once was. Memory makes present the story of Augustine's life and conversion, that it may be offered as a living sacrifice of praise, reflecting his due gratitude to God for the sake of inspiring his neighbor.