Augustine's Suspension Of Judgment

Augustine: Augustine’s goal was to refute the Academics’ suspension of judgment. In this passage, Augustine claims that human beings can be certain of their existence. As a result of this, Augustine also proves that it is possible for humans to obtain knowledge. According to Augustine, one cannot reasonably doubt his or her own existence. Augustine demonstrates this using multiple examples. For instance, Augustine demonstrates that even if an individual is deceived by his or her senses, it is certain that the individual who is deceived lives because the ability to be deceived is a characteristic of one who lives. From this simple fact, according to Augustine, one can conclude that he or she exists, which is to know one thing. Moreover, this
For instance, Augustine is attacking the Academics' suspension of judgment, and argues that you cannot suspend judgment about whether you are in fact in doubt. Descartes, by contrast, is trying to establish an axiom – namely his own existence – through the method of seeing what propositions cannot be doubted (because doubting them is incoherent). Furthermore, Augustine asserts that humans can obtain knowledge by turning inwards, towards an inner standard of truth. Through an act of self-reflection, individuals can reach the irrefutable conclusion that he or she exists. A conclusion with which Descartes agrees, though, Augustine and Descartes build different arguments from this mutually agreed upon premise. For instance, Augustine argues: “For he who says: ‘I know that I live,’ says that he knows one thing; if he were then to say: ‘I know that I know that I live,’ there are already two things, but that he knows these two, is to know a third thing; and so he can add a fourth and a fifth, and innumerable more, as long as he is able to do so” (Augustine, Handout). This shows that absolute knowledge is attainable for human beings, which serves as a refutation to the Academics’ argument. On the other hand, for Descartes, the end-goal was a lasting and comprehensive system of knowledge; but his immediate task was to establish whether or not it is even possible to obtain knowledge. What Descartes wanted to be able to show, beyond all further doubt, was that truth is possible; not that it is impossible. For Descartes, if knowledge of truth is obtainable, then it must be recognizably so, for otherwise he cannot know whether he knows, or whether he does not know. According to Descartes, one cannot know something and doubt it at the same time. If at any time one knows, then one cannot doubt, and if at any time one doubts, then one cannot know. The one fact that Descartes