The Formation of Questioning in Ancient and Medieval Culture (Plato and St. Augustine)

Abstract

The author analyzes the formation of questioning in two cultures (Ancient and Middle Ages) by the example of questions and answers in the works of Plato and St. Augustine. The author points out two reasons that triggered this process: firstly, the formation of an ancient personality, which was characterized by independent behavior and creativity, and secondly, the need not only to present new knowledge and pictures of the world to listeners, but also to convince them of the correctness of the proposed innovations. The questions and answers in Plato's dialogues are considered; in addition to the task of persuasion, they mark the stages of Plato's construction of concepts, while probably taking into account the objections of Plato's listeners, and the contradictions arising from the proposed definitions, and the understanding of various empirical cases, and the possibility of thinking them all as a whole. Questions, on the one hand, were a kind of reflection of cognition (dialectics) Plato of complex phenomena, on the other hand, helped Plato's listeners to develop a seemingly similar process of cognition. The analysis of questioning in Augustine's "Confession" allowed the author to distinguish three semantic contexts: the first one is the certification of new theoretical constructions, the second context is thinking, here the questions, on the one hand, mark the stages of creativity, representing a form of reflection, on the other hand, initiate listeners' own thinking, the third context is religious, it is both repentance and the conviction of those who waver in faith. If most questioners usually have questions that help thinking and work for persuasion, then the third context can be very different.