Franciscan Studies

THE MEDIATOR MEDIATED: FAITH AND REASON IN AUGUSTINE'S "DE MAGISTRO" What is thus eluded is the fact that representation does not suddenly encroach upon presence; it inhabits it as the very condition of its experience, of desire, and of enjoyment. Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology I open the De Magistro in medias res.1 In chapter X Augustine states, as a conclusion of the argument preceding, that "nothing is taught without signs" (nihil sine signis doceri). A few pages later in the same chapter he suggests that if we think about the matter more carefully, we may find that "there is nothing which is learned by means of signs" (fortasse nihil inventes, quod per sua signa discatur).2 1 This paper is the revised text of a lecture read at a symposium on "Augustine and the Classical Tradition," sponsored by The Young Scholars and held at The University of Texas at Austin, November 6-7, 1981. Some of the research for this paper was done during the academic year 1976-77, when I was on leave of absence from my teaching duties. My research during that year was supported by a fellowship from The National Endowment for the Humanities and a grant from The University Research Institute of The University of Texas. I am grateful to The Department of Philosophy and The University of Texas for granting me a leave of absence, and to The National Endowment for the Humanities and The University Research Institute for financial subvention. 2 The words here quoted are from chapter X, paragraphs 31 and 33, of the De Magistro. These and all further quotations from this work are from George G. Leckie, trans., Concerning the Teacher and On the Immortality of the Soul (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1938). Subsequent references will be given by chapter and paragraph, parenthetically, in the text. For the Latin text of the De Magistro I have used the edition by F. J. Thonnard in Oeuvres de Saint Au- 136LOUIS H MACKEY These statements define a paradox: nothing is taught without signs, but nothing is learned by means of them. The paradox, easily recognized as Augustine's version of the Meno paradox, exploits the duality of sign and significance. An ontic and epistemic distance separates the sign from its meaning. The sign is not the signified, and its meaning is never given in, with, or under the sign itself. Every sign therefore requires interpretation, but the interpretation would have to rest its authority on a prior knowledge of the signified, so that in the last instance nothing is learned from the sign as such. Yet the other half of Augustine's argument suggests that we have no access to realities save through signs: nothing is taught without signs. We are at once, it appears, bound to learn of realities by way of signs and incapable of interpieting signs except by recourse to realities. That is the paradox. Augustine thinks its resolution demands an appeal to our inner and only teacher: Christ. The title, De Magistro, "on the teacher" or "on the Master," viewed from the retrospect provided by the argument, recommends a christological reading of the text: it is Christ, "the unchangeable excellence (virtus) of God and his everlasting wisdom (sapientia)" (XI, 38), who dwells within the soul and shows us the reaUties by reference to which we interpret signs. Signs themselves are like the adverb ecce, "lo!" (X, 34-35). They call to mind, bring to our attention, or call our attention to things already known. But it is the Wisdom of God who, residing in the inner man, has the Power to teach us those things and how they are to be signified. The purpose of this paper is to examine the paradox of signs and its resolution in the De Magistro. gustm, 6, ire série: Opuscules, VI. Dialogues philosophiques III. De l'ame a Dieu (Paris: Desclee, de Brouwer et Cie, 1952).—My indebtedness to other scholars is too diffuse to be documented precisely, but I have been deeply influenced by the following works. R. A. Markus, "St. Augustine on Signs" and B. Darrell Jackson, "The Theory of Signs in St. Augustine's De Doctrina...