The City of God, Volume IIAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
The City of God, Volume II
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Apologetics -- Early works to 1800; Kingdom of God -- Early works to 1800
about the supreme good, but only about the propriety of associating or
not associating a friend in its participation: whether the wise man
will do this not for his own sake, but for the sake of his friend in
whose good he delights as in his own. So, too, when it is asked whether
all things about which philosophy is concerned are to be considered
uncertain, as by the New Academy, or certain, as the other philosophers
maintain, the question here is not what end should be pursued, but
whether or not we are to believe in the substantial existence of that
end; or, to put it more plainly, whether he who pursues the supreme
good must maintain that it is a true good, or only that it appears to
him to be true, though possibly it may be delusive,--both pursuing
one and the same good. The distinction, too, which is founded on the
dress and manners of the Cynics, does not touch the question of the
chief good, but only the question whether he who pursues that good
which seems to himself true should live as do the Cynics. There were,
in fact, men who, though they pursued different things as the supreme
good, some choosing pleasure, others virtue, yet adopted that mode
of life which gave the Cynics their name. Thus, whatever it is which
distinguishes the Cynics from other philosophers, this has no bearing
on the choice and pursuit of that good which constitutes happiness.
For if it had any such bearing, then the same habits of life would
necessitate the pursuit of the same chief good, and diverse habits
would necessitate the pursuit of different ends.
2. _How Varro, by removing all the differences which do not form
sects, but are merely secondary questions, reaches three
definitions of the chief good, of which we must choose one._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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