ABSTRACT
In heated debate Augustine wrested from scepticism the possibility of knowing the truth. The sceptics had said: there is no truth, everything is to be doubted. Augustine countered by saying: 'A man may doubt what he likes, but one thing at least he cannot doubt: his own doubt.' Centuries later Descartes was to argue against absolute doubt in a similar way; and we are again reminded of Descartes when Augustine turned to mathematics for the prototype of truth. With the same emphasis with which he looked for truth within man, Augustine identified truth with God. He reached this conclusion by following an argument sketched out by Plato in his Symposium. Creation is a theological not a philosophical concept. But in Augustine's mind it was fraught with philosophical difficulties. In Augustine's writings on the soul, his delicate sensibility, his powers of observation and skilful terminology, his penetrating analysis and his many other gifts set him down as an outstanding psychologist.
