What is philosophy, based on Augustine's City of God, Bk. VIII, ch.3?

Philosophy for Augustine is something that is not static and fixed. Meaning, each person, in a given time and place, has his/her own take to what philosophy is. He/She has his/her own way of doing philosophy. It has no specific structure to which one can say that this is the right and proper philosophy. Philosophy and philosophizing varies from each person, each given era, and given location. In the given chapter, it shows that Socrates’ Philosophy, his own way of philosophizing and how his followers interpret his philosophy.

In the given chapter, it was discussed that Socrates’ philosophy was the correction and regulation of manners to attain the final good that would make a person obtain a blessed life or raise his/herself upward to divine things. This discussion however, is an interpretation of Augustine to Socrates’ philosophy. The manner Augustine describes it is in the light of his own biases. It’s the same case as to how the other followers discuss the chief good. There are others that discuss the chief good in pleasure, virtue, etc. It may be true that Socrates inquired for that which is the chief good but the way his followers determine what that chief good is varies. 

Socrates’ way of philosophizing is through intellectual discourse. This means that the way he presents his arguments was through the medium of speaking. Socrates’ way of philosophizing is through letting a person realize that he/she might have not known what he has known. Through his way of speaking, he has let other people feel foolish to claim that they know what they know yet ended up not knowing anything at all. This way of discourse is different to the others as he was condemned and executed because a lot of people were insulted to his way of persuasion. 

Philosophy for Augustine therefore is something that is not final and fixed. It is something that moves in different ways. Each person in a given time and place has his/her own take in philosophy and interpreting other philosophies. He/She is covered by his/her biases.

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Source:

Schaff, P. (1896). Augustine on Ancient Philosophy (M. Dods, Trans.).
      In Klima, G., Allhoff, F., & Vaidya, A. (Ed.). Medieval 
      Philosophy: Essential Readings with Commentary
      (pp. 32-33). Blackwell Publishing: Australia.

What is philosophy, based on Augustine's City of God, Bk. VIII, ch.2? Revised

Philosophy for Augustine is seeing God in everything. God has something to do with all the things and happenings in the world.

His belief on God is seen in his understanding of the word wisdom. In chapter 1 of the book 8 of the City of God, Augustine stated that wisdom is God. So if philosophers were lovers of wisdom, as described by Pythagoras, then they are lovers of God. A wise man is to set example to what is living the good life and that is to balance the different thrusts in life. This pursuit of loving wisdom then, is a pursuit of loving God.

This philosophy can also be seen in the way Augustine interprets the philosophy of the Greek philosophers. He showed that their ideas about the principle of things needed another reality that can cause the dynamism of these matters. Augustine’s trace of the history of thought of the Ionic school ended with Diogenes and Archelaus whom explained that their principle of things answers the question of the original substance of the world and why it needs to change and produce other things. Augustine did not end until he found an answer in which can prove principle of things and what causes it to transform and form another thing.

Diogenes and Archelaus’ answers then prove that there is another reality which is the divine mind that causes the production and change because of its capacity of imagining the possibilities of the world. Something urges the matter to change and produce the other things in the world in which he calls the divine mind present in the original substance.

The idea of the divine mind is the idea of someone or something greater than the material world for it is something that causes the more important factor of the original substance which is the reason to why it changes and produces.

Philosophy for Augustine is asserting God's influence in everything. It can be seen through his definition of wisdom, which he refers to as God, and through his trace of the history of thought of the Ionic school, where he stopped answering the problem of the original substance with Diogenes and Archelaus who attributes a principle thing and a divine mind.

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Source:

Schaff, P. (1896). Augustine on Ancient Philosophy (M. Dods, Trans.).
      In Klima, G., Allhoff, F., & Vaidya, A. (Ed.). Medieval 
      Philosophy: Essential Readings with Commentary
      (pp. 31-32). Blackwell Publishing: Australia.