A selection of the best from recent issues of the Philosopher

Augustine does not present some philosophical arguments against the brand of scepticism adhered to by the New Academy, though they would not be effective against the more sophisticated scepticism of Sextus Empiricus. For example, he says it is contradictory to claim to know that we know nothing; we do have knowledge of logic and mathematics; and we cannot base our actions on what is 'probable' or 'like-to-truth', since we cannot know whether something is 'like-to-truth' without comparing it to the truth itself.

A more persistent and interesting argument is that the Academics' wise man (who is supposed to achieve serenity through knowing that he knows nothing) cannot be wise unless he 'knows wisdom'. Here, Augustine's language reads oddly to modern eyes, especially when he personifies wisdom as a woman. But his point is that the Academics are too defeatist in renouncing all possibility of attaining wisdom, simply because there are no natural means for establishing what it consists in. Augustine himself was in precisely such a position at the time: by embracing Christianity, he recognised that wisdom was attainable, even if he would not in fact attain it until after his baptism.

Again, this runs contrary to the modern idea that you should sort out what you are committing yourself to before the act of conversion. But Augustine (both before and after his conversion) believed firmly in the distinction between esoteric and exoteric teaching in philosophy and religion. Esoteric wisdom was available only to the few, who had the intellectual ability to understand the wisdom handed down by word of mouth among initiates. Exoteric teachings, on the other hand, while failing to convey the central message, were capable of being expressed in writing, and were a sufficient guide to the good life for the mass of ordinary folk. Augustine was still looking forward to his initiation into the esoteric doctrines of Christianity.

One of the most fascinating sections of the Contra Academicus comes towards the end, when Augustine reconstructs the history of the Academy in terms of the esoteric-exoteric distinction. Originally, under Plato, the Academy was relatively open about its esoteric doctrines, although some of their deeper aspects were reserved for initiates only (for Augustine, what Plato really believed was what was revealed much later by Plotinus). However, with the rise of more materialistic and popular philosophies, such as Stoicism and Epicureanism, the Academics feared that their esoteric teachings would be ridiculed. Their primary concern was to attack materialism, and they felt it better that ordinary folk should have no philosophical beliefs at all, than that they should be dogmatic materialists. So the exoteric philosophy of the New Academy was sceptical, even though its esoteric teaching remained the same as always. Since then, the intellectual climate had changed, and it was now possible for Platonists such as Plotinus to be more explicit than ever before about the esoteric doctrines of Platonism.

Augustine's conclusion is that we can attain the truth only by relying on the authority of Christ. However, we also need reason in order to understand it, and this is supplied through the esoteric philosophy of Plato.

PhD theses turned into books do not always achieve a perfect balance between dry scholarship and the presentation of new ideas to a lay audience. The present work is no exception. I would recommend the reader to skim through the first two chapters for background material which places Augustine's dialogue Contra Academicus in context, and to concentrate on the rest of the book.

The main body of the book is a detailed summary of the dialogue, with ample commentary and detailed quotations. Curley's purpose is to show that the Contra Academicus is primarily a religious rather than a philosophical work , to be understood in the context of Augustine's religious development at the time. I find his argument thoroughly convincing.

In this brief review, I have focused on just one aspect of this interesting and wide-ranging dialogue. Curley has done an excellent job of expounding and commenting on the twists and turns of the argument, and I would strongly recommend the book to anyone who wishes to go more deeply into Augustine's discussion of the New Academy.

Reviewed by George MacDonald Ross