The Structure of Augustine's Theory of Truth and Value and the Meaning of Life

这项研究的特点是从奥古斯丁的角度来考虑有关真理理论的问题，我相信，这对现代读者来说是很有启发性的。奥古斯丁在他早期的对话录《反对学院派》中驳斥了学院派的真理论。他在这段对话中提出了许多类型的反驳论点。他对以下问题表现出极大的关注：(1)两种关于真理的理论（即奥古斯丁的理论，另一方面是学术界和卡尼阿德斯的理论）的区别是什么；(2)这种差异对坚持自己的真理理论的人意味着什么。要阐明这两种真理理论之间的区别，困难之一在于这样一种情况：对于什么是真理或如何找到真理，从来没有达成一致意见的各方可能会使用“相同”的词汇来展示他们的理论，尽管他们对这些词汇的理解是完全相反的。在Contra Academicos中，我们可以看到学术界和奥古斯丁对一些关键词汇如“uerus”、“ueritas”、“uideri”等的使用是不同的，但双方对这些词汇的使用是连贯的。奥古斯丁着重研究了学院派的概率概念，特别是其在解释行为中的作用，并分析了双方对概率和假象的使用，表明他们的真理论是不同的，学院派的真理论使我们有了某种机械的行动论和动因论。我们可以阅读他后来的哲学著作，《忏悔录》第十章和《三位一体论》第八至十五章，从这个角度来看，他发展了他的真理和价值理论。

It is characteristic of this study to consider the problems concerining the theory of truth from Augustine's point of view which is, I believe, relly suggestive for modern readers. In his early dialogue Contra Academicos, Augustine refutes the Academics' theory of truth. He puts forward many types of arguments of refutation in this dialogue. And he shows great concern for the problems : (1) what the difference between the tow theories of truth, (i.e. that of Augustine, on the one hand, and that of Academics and of Carneades, on the other) is ; and (2) what the difference means to people who stand on their own theory of truth. One of the difficulties in elucidating the difference between those two theories of truth lies in the situation in which the different parties who never agree on what truth is or what it is to find it may use 'the same' words in showing their theories, though their understandings of those words are radically opposed. In Contra Academicos, we can see that the uses of some crucial words such as uerus, ueritas, uideri etc. of Academics and Augustine are different but that each party's uses of those words are coherent in each party. Augustine focuses on the concept of probabile of the Academics, especially its role in their explanation of action, and analyzing the use of probabile and uerisimile of both sides he shows that their theories of truth are different from each other and that the Academics' theory of truth leads us to have a certain king of mechanical theory of action and agent. We can read his later philosophical works, Confessiones X and De Trinitate VIII-XV, from this point of view, where he develops his theory of truth and value.