Historical Research as a Socratic Dialogue with the Present: Interpreting Augustine’s Treatment of Porphyry in Ciu. 10

Abstract

This research aims to identify Augustine’s deeper motivations in his refutation of the Neo-Platonist Porphyry in the City of God X. One of the facets of the inquiry is to clarify the role of Porphyry in Augustine’s political theory and in his perspective of the Roman Empire. This essay focuses on the method I employed which led to certain discoveries during these investigations. The method is described in terms of a “Socratic dialogue”, as an Auseinandersetzung between past and modern/recent history. The particular application of this method entails recognizing and objectifying certain attitudes in present society as well as those in contemporary scholarship, which can subliminally color one’s perspective in historical research. This variation of a “Socratic dialogue,” as applied to my research, confronts the conception of “empire” or “empire mentality”; striving for social change in terms of “revolution,” justifying (or rebelling against) oppressive measures or the oppressors. The rigid questioning of these issues takes place in a debate between the “Voice of the Present” (the attitudes identified above) and the “Voice of the Past” (the 4th and 5th century context in the Roman Empire in Augustine’s lifetime). The goal of this method is twofold: to highlight the sometimes thwarting effects of the historian’s personal context on their historical interpretation, and secondly, to open new avenues in interpretation, namely, in my case, enabling the placing of Augustine’s refutation of Porphyry into a more plausible, credible historical context.