Augustine (354-430 AD)

St Augustine (354-430 AD) in his work On the Trinity proposes a series of analogies to illustrate that the human (mind) is created on the image of God; and also to make the God-Trinity concept more accessible for the reader.
Augustine uses some of the faculties and functions of the human soul, like (see in [2.6.1]): Reason, Will, Memory, Understanding, Love.

*Faculties and functions of Soul used in the Trinity analogy*

Since in God-Trinity the three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) are of the same essence, he is looking for similar structures with three parts and one essence in the human mind. He finds the following analogies, in an analysis which processing from the exterior to the interior of human cognition:

1st: will, image received through sense perception, understanding
2nd: will, object of thought, understanding
3rd: self, love, understanding

The 1st analogy is has a severe shortcoming: the image received through sense perception depends on the exterior word, so is not internal enough to the Reason.
For the 2nd and 3rd analogy, the members have the same essence: they are all Reason, as presented in the OntoUML diagram below:

*Augustine on Trinity-Human Soul analogy*

Trinity	Members of Trinity	Explanation
In God	Father, Son, HolySpirit	According to Augustine the members of the Trinity – Father, Son and HolySpirit – are of one essence (essentia), but three persons (personae).
2nd analogy in Reason	Will, ObjectOfThought, Understanding	The memory presents the object of thought, (e.g. an image of an object, a mathematical theorem..), which is grasped by understanding. The will directs the attention of understanding towards the object of thought. The problem with this analogy is that the presented relation is not eternal: the object of thought changes as the will changes.
3rd analogy in Reason	SelfKnowledge, Love, Understanding	The memory presents the image of self, (as an object of thought), which is grasped by understanding, self-knowledge. The love of self directs through the will the attention of understanding towards the image of self. Since the love for self is unchanging, this analogy is stable and immortal, as the human soul containing it is immortal. Augustine thinks that this is the best analogy for God Trinity – human soul. “But in these three, when the mind knows itself and loves itself, a trinity remains: the mind, love, and knowledge.” “These three, therefore, are in a marvelous manner inseparable from another; and yet each of them is a substance, and all together are one substance or essence, while the terms themselves express a mutual relationship.”

Description of the classes in Augustine’s trinity analogies:

Class	Description	Relations
God	Christian God
Father	Father is a person of God.	subkind of God; begets Son; gives to Church Holy Spirit
Son	Son is a person of God.	subkind of God
HolySpirit	Holy Spirit is a person of God.	subkind of God
Reason	The image of God in Humans consists of that part of the soul –Reason – which the animals do not have in common with us. Reason is the highest function of Soul, co-ordinates the subordinated faculties, provides deductive, logical thinking and access to Knowledge and Truth.	generalizes Memory, Will, Understanding
Memory	Memory stores images, sense perceptions, knowledge.
ObjectOfThought	Object of thought is presented by the memory to the other faculties of the soul.	exclusive part of Memory
Understanding	Understanding is a cognitive state characterized posession and autonomuous usage of concepts referring to the object of thought.	grasps ObjectOfThought
Will	Will is the facuty of the soul which initiates action.	Mediates between Understanding and ObjectOfThought; directs the Understanding to the ObjectOfThought.
ImageOfSelf	The image of self is an object of thought referring to the thinker.	subkindof ObjectOfThought
SelfKnowledge	Self knowledge is understanding of the Self.	subkindof Understanding
Love	The love of self directs through the will the attention of understanding towards the image of self. Since the love for self is unchanging, this analogy is stable and immortal, as the human soul containing it is immortal.	directs Will to ImageOf Self

Sources:;

All citations from: Augustine, Aurelius. The Trinity. Translated by Stephen McKenna in The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, vol. 45. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1963.
Adamson, Peter, History of Philosophy without any gaps, podcast 115 – Me, Myself and I: Augustine on Mind and Memory
Adamson, Peter, History of Philosophy without any gaps, podcast 116 – Charles Brittain on Augustine’s “On the Trinity”

First published: 6/6/2019
Updated:

Class	Desciption	Relations
Sign	A Sign (signum) is: “something that shows itself to the senses and something other than itself to the mind”. An essential attribute of Signs is the sense (see [2.6.1]) with which a human can percept them.	generalizes NaturalSign and ConventionalSign; signify SignifiedObjectsand other Signs
SignifiedObject	The Object, Thing signified by the Sign.
NaturalSign	“Natural signs are those which, apart from any intention or desire of using them as signs, do yet lead to the knowledge of something else – as, for example, smoke when it indicates fire, the footprint of an animal passing by.”	subkind of Sign
Conventional Sign	“Conventional signs, …, are those which living beings mutually exchange in order to show, as well as they can, the feelings of their minds, or their perceptions, or their thoughts.” Augustine sustains, that information transmitted with signs by a trustworthy Teacher (like textual information) is not enough for a true understanding (see also [2.6.1]).	subkind of Sign
SpokenWord	Spoken word: “sign of something, which can be understood by the hearer when pronounced by the speaker.”	subkind of ConvetionalSign
WrittenWord	“Writing (litterae) [written word], introduced by man in order to impart permanency to spoken language, is just a secondary system of signs, consisting of ‘signs of words’ (signa verborum) rather than of words itself.”	subkind of ConvetionalSign; signifies SpokenWord
Other Conventional Sign	Some signs “relate to the sense of sight, some to that of hearing, a very few to the other [conventional signs to other] senses”	subkind of ConvetionalSign
Convention	Convention – in a given language – makes the relation between the Conventional Sign and the Signified Object.	relates ConventionalSign and SignifiedObject
Mental-InteriorWord	“It is … the mental (verbum mentis) or interior word (verbum interius), i.e., the mental concept, that is considered as word in its most proper sense, whereas the spoken word appears as a mere sign or voice of the word.”	understands Sign; shared part of Thought
Thought	“Thoughts (cogitationes) are performed in mental words”
Communication	“spoken word signifies a concept that we have formed within our mind and communicates it to others”	relates SenderSoul with RecieverSoul; uses Conventional Sign
HumanSoul	Human soul	thinks Thought; percepts NaturalSign
SenderSoul	Sender soul is the person who speaks, writes, sends other sign. The term Sender was not used by Augustine, he used the more particular speaker, writer.	role of HumanSoul; listens, reads ConventionalSign
ReceiverSoul	Receiver soul is the person who listens, reads, receives other sign. The term Receiver was not used by Augustine, he used the more particular listener, reader.	role of HumanSoul; speaks, writes ConventionalSign

Class

Desciption

Relations

Sign

A Sign (signum) is: “something that shows itself to the senses and something other than itself to the mind”.
An essential attribute of Signs is the sense (see [2.6.1]) with which a human can percept them.

generalizes NaturalSign and ConventionalSign; signify SignifiedObjectsand other Signs

SignifiedObject

The Object, Thing signified by the Sign.

NaturalSign

“Natural signs are those which, apart from any intention or desire of using them as signs, do yet lead to the knowledge of something else – as, for example, smoke when it indicates fire, the footprint of an animal passing by.”

subkind of Sign

Conventional
Sign

“Conventional signs, …, are those which living beings mutually exchange in order to show, as well as they can, the feelings of their minds, or their perceptions, or their thoughts.”
Augustine sustains, that information transmitted with signs by a trustworthy Teacher (like textual information) is not enough for a true understanding (see also [2.6.1]).

subkind of Sign

SpokenWord

Spoken word: “sign of something, which can be understood by the hearer when pronounced by the speaker.”

subkind of ConvetionalSign

WrittenWord

“Writing (litterae) [written word], introduced by man in order to impart permanency to spoken language, is just a secondary system of signs, consisting of ‘signs of words’ (signa verborum) rather than of words itself.”

subkind of ConvetionalSign; signifies SpokenWord

Other
Conventional
Sign

Some signs “relate to the sense of sight, some to that of hearing, a very few to the other [conventional signs to other] senses”

subkind of ConvetionalSign

Convention

Convention – in a given language – makes the relation between the Conventional Sign and the Signified Object.

relates ConventionalSign and SignifiedObject

Mental-InteriorWord

“It is … the mental (verbum mentis) or interior word (verbum interius), i.e., the mental concept, that is considered as word in its most proper sense, whereas the spoken word appears as a mere sign or voice of the word.”

understands Sign; shared part of Thought

Thought

“Thoughts (cogitationes) are performed in mental words”

Communication

“spoken word signifies a concept that we have formed within our mind and communicates it to others”

relates SenderSoul with RecieverSoul; uses Conventional
Sign

HumanSoul

Human soul

thinks Thought; percepts NaturalSign

SenderSoul

Sender soul is the person who speaks, writes, sends other sign. The term Sender was not used by Augustine, he used the more particular speaker, writer.

role of HumanSoul; listens, reads ConventionalSign

ReceiverSoul

Receiver soul is the person who listens, reads, receives other sign. The term Receiver was not used by Augustine, he used the more particular listener, reader.

role of HumanSoul; speaks, writes ConventionalSign

Philosophy Models

Notes on philosophy presented in OntoUML, UML, OWL/BFO, OWL/GUFO diagrams and codes

[2.6.3] St Augustine’s Trinity – Human Soul Analogy

[2.6.2] St Augustine on Sign and Language

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