San Agustín: interioridad, reflexividad y certeza

Abstract

The present article researches into two main problems in St. Augustine's well known arguments of certainty, against the sceptics. Really, both problems are two different sides or levels of the same "methodological" question: the interiority of the knowledge (and the truth), and the reflection of the mind, as a way of certainty. A main conclusion of the present study is that both sides are correlative: reflection presupposes interiority, and interiority demands reflection, as a way of certainty. But, what is reflection for Augustine? The last part of this paper examines the Augustinian doctrine of reflection, in the context of his «philosophy of the mind». At this point, the present enquiry tries to show that our thinker supposes along his works (specially in De Trinitate and in Cmzfessiones) three main kinds of reflection, according to three different modes of self-knowledge of the human mind: "llotitialis", "cogitativa", and "phenomenological".