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This 3 page paper examines the similarities and differences between Seneca and St. Augustine in reference to the divinity of mankind. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MBsenaug.rtf
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is one that is intrinsic to the nature of mankind and in his own inimitable way his search for himself. Both Seneca and St. Augustine attempted to reconcile the idea
of the Divine and the role that a belief in the divine played in the lives of the everyday man. In many ways the philosophers agreed, but on some significant
points, they diverged. Perhaps, somewhere in the middle of the two, lies a closer understanding of the truth. In his Theory of Knowledge section of the Immortalitate Animae, St. Augustine
states that cognition draws its origin from illumination, and that illumination comes from God. Eternal truths are given to human intelligence by several means, such as Wisdom, and the Word
of God. Therefore, intellectual knowledge is not the result of the gathering of data by the intellect, but a participation or grant of God. Seneca, in his letters to
Lucilius expounds upon living what he terms the good life, which is to live a simple life in accordance with Nature. Seneca, whose works have distinctly stoic overtones, proposes that
the virtues of wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance are all that one needs to get by in life, and in striving to live up to these virtues one begins to
understand divinity. Both philosophers seem to have been influenced by the teachings of Plato. In Senecas On the Shortness of Life essay he bemoans the fact that mankind only
seems to begin to live at the end of their life spans. Aristotle, who came before Seneca, had already lamented Nature and to this Seneca states, "Hence Aristotles grievance against
Nature -- an incongruous position for a philosopher: Nature has been so lavish to animals that they vegetate for five or ten human spans, whereas man, with his capacity for
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