从理性到信仰:西方自由观的转向——对奥古斯丁信仰自由观的一种解读

在古希腊理性精神与基督教信仰文化交汇的大背景下,奥古斯丁扬弃柏拉图和亚里士多德等思想家的理性自由观,提出了以基督教信仰为基础的信仰自由观。这种自由观展示了信仰、自由意志和理性三者之间富有张力的依存关系,实现了西方自由观的转向,对后来的西方哲学与文化发生了深远影响。这种自由观在德国古典哲学尤其是黑格尔的哲学中得到复兴,但由于从根本上并没有克服自由与决定论之间的困境,现实的人的自由、理性与信仰在黑格尔哲学中都被消解了。即便如此,在当代一些重要的思想家那里,奥古斯丁确立的思维范式依然具有实质性影响。     

Retracing Augustine's Ethics

Augustine's exposition of the image of God in Book 15 of On The Trinity (De Trinitate) sheds light on multiple issues that arise in scholarly interpretations of Augustine's account of lying. This essay argues against interpretations that posit a uniform account of lying in Augustine—with the same constitutive features, and insisting both that it is never necessary to tell a lie and that lying is absolutely prohibited. Such interpretations regularly employ intertextual reading strategies that elide distinctions and developments in Augustine's ethics of lying. Instead, I show how looking at texts written prior and subsequent to the texts usually consulted suggests a trajectory in Augustine's thought, beginning with an understanding of lies as morally culpable but potentially necessary, and culminating in a vision of lying as the fundamental evil and the origin of every sin.     

A Contemporary (Catholic) Appropriation of Augustine's massa damnata Theory of Predestination

Over the centuries, especially since the Jansenist controversy, much ink has been spilled defending and criticizing Augustine’s contentious interpretation of the revealed doctrines of predestination and reprobation. Instead of attempting to trace the entire debate or adjudicate the exegetical questions, I attempt the more modest task of analyzing how Augustine’s massa damnata theory of election has been re‐received in modern Catholic scholarship. Thus, leaving aside the historical and exegetical complexity of the issue, I argue for a particular conceptual appropriation of Augustine’s theory in line with a contemporary Catholic theology of grace and predestination.     

时间洞察力的理论研究

对时间洞察力的理论研究进行了总结和回顾,把时间洞察力的观点归纳为八个方面：时间洞察力的发展观、性别观、学业观、生活观、文化观、健康观、人格观及精神病理学观点。认为时间洞察力研究应该把重点放在理论构建和因果关系的探讨上。     

The Tenseless Theory of Time and the Moodless Theory of Modality

This paper develops a moodless theory of modality, intended to be as closely analogous to the tenseless theory of time as possible. It is argued that the new theory is distinct from David Lewis' modal realism and that it solves certain problems better than modal realism does, namely, the problem of advanced modalizing, the problem of necessitism, and the problem of conflict with common opinion.     

Why Theological Hermeneutics Needs Rhetoric: Augustine's De doctrina Christiana

To define theological interpretation, this article appeals to Augustine's De doctrina christiana. The article argues against the claim that De doctrina is a rhetorical handbook and asserts instead that the treatise can best be described as an ‘expanded hermeneutics’, that is, a hermeneutics that includes rhetoric. The discussion highlights that rhetoric is defined loosely as ‘communication’: the focus is on the target audience, not the mode of delivery. De doctrina is put into dialogue with a contemporary proponent of theological interpretation, Stephen Fowl, to highlight its distinctiveness. The article concludes that the paradigm for theological interpretation is the sermon.     

Augustine's Christian–Platonist Account of Goodness: A Reconsideration

Augustine's metaphysics is a subject little studied, but often much criticized. Among the recent studies of Augustine's metaphysics, Scott MacDonald's interpretation of Augustine's notion of goodness claims that Augustine's account is incoherent. This suggests a reading of Augustine that is somewhat problematic. This article argues that much of the difficulty that MacDonald claims rests on a misunderstanding of Augustine's views about the goodness of creation and existence and the corruptibility of created things. Augustine's position takes for granted an understanding of existence (or being) as a good and the participation of all things in the pre–eminent good, that is God.     

奥古斯丁“信仰寻求理解”的哲学诠释学解读

“信仰寻求理解”源自奥古斯丁在解决三位一体的理解问题时提出的“你们要是不信,定然不得理解”。安瑟伦将其表述为“信仰寻求理解”。“信仰寻求理解”不仅指出了寻求宗教真理的途径,而且渗透着深刻的哲学诠释学思想,甚至可以说在一定意义上开始了为后世精神科学的合法性的奠基。     

Light Affine Set Theory: A Naive Set Theory of Polynomial Time

In [7], a naive set theory is introduced based on a polynomial time logical system, Light Linear Logic (LLL). Although it is reasonably claimed that the set theory inherits the intrinsically polytime character from the underlying logic LLL, the discussion there is largely informal, and a formal justification of the claim is not provided sufficiently. Moreover, the syntax is quite complicated in that it is based on a non-traditional hybrid sequent calculus which is required for formulating LLL.In this paper, we consider a naive set theory based on Intuitionistic Light Affine Logic (ILAL), a simplification of LLL introduced by [1], and call it Light Affine Set Theory (LAST). The simplicity of LAST allows us to rigorously verify its polytime character. In particular, we prove that a function over {0, 1}* is computable in polynomial time if and only if it is provably total in LAST.     

Augustine's Ethics of Belief and AvoidingViolence in Religious Disputes

This article is a study of how Augustine's ethics of belief shaped his arguments against unbelief and its legacy in using coercion to settle disputes. After considering the arguments for belief presented by Augustine, the article studies how these were shaped by his understanding of the problem of evil and how the Fall influenced free will. What is noted to be of benefit in Augustine is that he offers arguments in favor of belief, and is convinced that he has shown unbelief to be based on unsound reasoning. By way of contrast, a number of theologians (such as Tertullian, John Calvin, and those under the heading of Reformed Epistemology) are considered who do not believe that arguments are necessary to support belief or reject unbelief. These are contrasted with Augustine and it is argued that they have significant shortcomings in this respect. However, the article concludes that Augustine could have gone farther in supporting the claim that it is clear that God exists, and his own shortcomings have been used to justify coercion in religious belief. If common ground is to be achieved this problem must be corrected and an adequate foundation for clarity must be established.     

《忏悔录》第二卷"偷梨事件"分析

文章分析了奥古斯丁《忏悔录》第2卷“偷梨”这一事件与其神学反思的联系。着重于指出其与《创世记》亚当夏娃违背上帝命令一事的相似性,从而使这一事件在奥古斯丁神哲学整体中得到比较深刻的理解。