http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] shkrobius.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] scholar_vit 2009-11-01 09:36 pm (UTC)

Perhaps not. The invective is not against the others but against the rhetoric master who "referred to [Organon] with cheeks swelling with pride." Augustine tells that this pride was vainglory because the rhetorician was not able to explain ten categories to his pupils better than Augustine was able to understand the book himself. Augustine has more than one such invectives with Platonic overtones; to him, knowledge was the personal path on recognition of eternal and esoteric truths. I agree that it can be read your way, but Aristotle was Augustine's straw man and they had radically different theories of transmission. It is a not-too-subtle implication that Aristotle's educational theories are patently false, too. "Men cannot teach one another. G-d is the only teacher of men." But he was not too consistent in this view either, admitting that interaction with excellent men can also teach. This brings us back to the rhetorician who is to be disdained for his failings despite his pride.

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