What is philosophy, based on Augustine's City of God, Bk. VIII, ch.6?

Philosophy for Augustine based on chapter 6 of book VIII of the City of God is God as unchangeable and has no material body. Augustine sees this God as not made but instead, this God is whom all things were made. This he calls the Physical Theology.

This can be understood through Augustine’s interpretation of the Platonists. He said that the Platonists, through experience, saw that the first principle of things must not be from the physical world. This is because the physical world or the sensible world is changing. A changing thing cannot cause the existence of another changing thing since the changing thing is still on the process of becoming a being. Only a being which is truly “is” can cause the existence of others.

A changing thing, be it in its form or nature can only “be” through which truly “is”. In here, Augustine accounts that which truly “is” as the God, the unchangeable reality. He is unchangeable because He is already in the state of being. He is the absolute “is” that supports and maintains the things that are changing, the things under the world of senses and intelligence. God cannot take the form of a material body since this is under things that are changing.

The realization that God is the absolute “is” is rooted from the Platonists experiences and trainings. These experiences and trainings have enabled them to judge better the things that pertain to senses and things that pertain to mind. They’ve said that it is the mind that judges and not the body but it doesn’t mean that the two are separate realities. It is the mind that develops or trains so that it can know better to judge better the sensible world. The world of the body can be understood by and through the mind.

For Augustine, the Platonists knows that the mind is changing that is why they trained. The mind is their tool in seeking God that transcends all bodies. It is only through the mind that God can be understood fully and truly but understanding God is also done only through the things it had made, the sensible things. It is the mind that can see the invisible things that God made. This invisible things, however is manifested by the sensible things.

Through training, the Platonists, who had gained more knowledge than other men, have concluded that the cause of all these sensible things cannot be accounted to that which is in the physical world. It is because the physical world is changing. They saw that a changing thing cannot cause another changing thing’s existence since it in itself is not stable. They have concluded that only an unchanging thing or reality can cause the existence of these things since it “is”. It is not made by anything or anyone but instead, it is where or whom all things came from. It is where things are made.

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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. 36-37). Blackwell Publishing: Australia.