Augustine's Concept of Truth

在他的对话《法官大人》中，奥古斯丁提出了一个著名的命题：我们不是从任何人类老师那里获得知识，而是从我们内心深处的真理中获得。然而，奥古斯丁对这一内在真理的概念似乎在对话过程中发生了变化。当奥古斯丁第一次介绍内在真理的概念时，他把它比作光，并说：“关于颜色和其他东西，我们参考光，这个世界的元素，我们感觉到的那些身体，以及感觉本身(12，39)”。他在这里的意思是，当我们获得感官知觉时，我们也意识到这种知觉是真是假，也就是它是关于真实的事物(RE)还是关于虚假的图像。从这个意义上说，真理就是我们确信自己的知识是真实的东西。奥古斯丁说：“学生寻找内在的真理，在内心思考老师说的是不是真的。”在这里，真理是我们用来判断所说的是真是假的东西。这一转变可以解释如下。奥古斯丁从一开始就不认为知识的确定性是完全客观的。他说：“我们根据每个人的能力来咨询真相。”他很清楚我们的能力有限，正是这种意识促使奥古斯丁改变了他对真理的看法。

In his dialogue 'De magistro', Augustine states a famous thesis : we get knowledge not from any human teacher, but from consulting the truth inhabiting in our inner man. Augustine's concept of this inner truth, however, seems to change in the course of the dialogue. When Augustine first introduces the idea of inner truth, he compares it to light and says "Concerning color and other things we consult light, the elements of this world, those bodies which we sense, and the senses themselves (12,39)". What he means here is that when we get sense perception, we are also aware whether this perception is true or false, that is whether it is of real things (res) or of false images. In this sense, the truth is somethiing by which we are convinced that our knowledge is true. Augustine says, "pupils, looking to that inner truth, consider within themselves whether teachers say true or not. (14,45)" Here the truth is something by which we can judge whether what has been said is true or false. This transition can be explained as follows. Augustine from the beginning does not regard the certainty of knowledge as wholly objective. "We consult", he says, "the truth according to the capacity of each one." He is well aware of the limit of our capacity It was this awareness that prompted Augustine to change his notion of the truth.