April 2006
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34 Reads
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4 Citations
Journal of the History of Philosophy
In Contra Academicos 3.11.24, Augustine responds to skepticism about the existence of the external world by arguing that what appears to be the world Ñ as he terms things, the "quasi-earth" and "quasi-sky" Ñ cannot be doubted. While some (e.g., M. Burnyeat and G. Matthews) interpret this passage as a subjectivist response to global skepticism, it is here argued that Augustine's debt to Epicurean epistemology and theology, especially as presented in Cicero's De Natura Deorum 1.25.69 Ð 1.26.74, provides the basis for a much more plausible, realist interpretation of Augustine's argument.