La sagesse « droit chemin de la vie » : une métaphore du Contra Academicos relue à la lumière du protreptique philosophique

Abstract

This article discusses the definition of wisdom as uia uitae given by the speakers at the end of the first book of the Contra Academicos. Far from serving a minor part, this definition lays the terms for the fundamental question raised here by Augustine : is wisdom, or philosophy, a process, a path, which eventually leads to truth, or should it be understood as a quest which will remain unfulfilled ? This image allows Augustine to both effectively debate the purpose of secular philosophy, and to define his own philosophical approach. At the time of writing Contra Academicos, Augustine is at a medial and progressive stage: his thought is no longer entirely an aporia but not yet a dogma. Moreover, Augustine could be borrowing this definition of wisdom from Cicero’s Hortensius ; this would imply that the passage of the Contra Academicos where it appears should be considered as a new fragment of the Ciceronian propreptic.