It is right also that philosophy should be called knowledge of the truth.–Aristotle

If truth is genuinely true, then it will be discovered regardless of one’s philosophical outlook or frame of reference. For example, Aristotle and Augustine have both discovered important metaphysical connections between the perennial questions of truth, reality or being, and the metaphysical principles that make being a possibility in the first place. Although it might be unusual to find connections between Aristotle and Augustine, due to their different methods and perspectives, it should not be surprising that they arrive at similar conclusions. Even though each thinker has a different metaphysical starting point and prior commitments (Augustine being a Platonist, and Aristotle utilizing a more empirical and inductive approach) there is still a lot of common ground between the two philosophers. As I will demonstrate, there are several reasons for this shared commonality. Each thinker has a commitment to discover truth and believes real knowledge about the world and ultimate reality is possible. Since reality, itself, is the determinant of order (not one’s theories about it, because those could be wrong), it should not be surprising that each thinker arrives at similar conclusions even if each is employing different approaches.¹ The structure of reality is not different for either philosopher. Even though each thinker is working in different historical eras and regions of the world, truth still endures across time and space. In addition, it may be discovered that each philosopher’s approach, though different, is actually complementary to one another. For this essay, the specific overlapping areas between these thinkers are the themes of being, truth, and the role of logic as foundational to understanding reality. Hopefully, it will be discovered how these great ideas and intuitions of being, truth, and logic must be among the first principles of reality.

First, it is important to have a working definition of being before making an analysis of each philosopher’s position. Being is the object of study of metaphysics (the branch of philosophy which investigates the first principles and causes of all reality). Being is simply that to which existence belongs, and it is the task of the metaphysician to describe the causes, principles, and limitations which belong to different kinds of things. It is believed that understanding the modes and properties of being through the philosophical lenses of being and becoming, or being and non-being, that a greater apprehension of reality is achieved. Being is the exploration of reality, although, it may include more than physical reality because the metaphysician is also interested in how immaterial things like mathematics (including the axioms and laws of logic such as noncontradiction, identity, and excluded middle), the mind or intellect (or at least, objects of the mind), and moral truths such as justice, the good, or the concepts of right and wrong, relate to being. Metaphysicians explore the question, “Is there an ultimate foundation to these things that make them possible?” Therefore, when Aristotle, Augustine, or any other classical metaphysician discusses themes such as being and truth, or logic, they are investigating the first principles of reality and how they relate to the world around us.²

It is important to point out as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas do, that there is a transcendent and universal quality to being. Briefly, these philosophers believe there is a transcendent nature to being because it is a universal concept just like truth, goodness, justice, and human nature (among others) are. These concepts are considered transcendent and universal because any number of particular things can participate in them. For example, many particular people can pursue justice and even experience instances of it. To the degree that a particular instance of justice is genuine, it resembles or takes part in the universal and transcendent definition of what it means to achieve justice which is true at all times and places. This is why an historian can say that a particular event in the past is just or unjust³. Similarly, when Aristotle says, “being is predicated of all things” (588), he is saying that being is a universally transcendent concept. Just like truth, justice, and the good, being must be transcendent and universal in order to make any meaningful statements about it.

We now have a reasonable understanding of what being is and why it is considered a universal. In part two we will examine the relationship between being and truth and explore important commonalities between the perspectives of Aristotle and Augustine.

1Reality, here, is used to indicate that which exists outside the human mind. In this sense, reality is the determinate of order because sometimes there is a real difference between appearance and reality, just as there is a difference between our theories of reality (epistemology) and reality itself (ontology). Moving on in this essay, however, the term “being” will be used to include all of reality which can be divided along the lines of subjective and objective, mental and external, actual and possible, and so forth.

2Although there were those before him who touched on the question, Aristotle posed the question of being this way, “And indeed the question which was raised of old and is raised now and always, and is always the subject of doubt, viz. What being is, is just the question, what is substance” (Vol. 7, 550). In this passage, some translations describe “substance” as “beingness” which might be more helpful. Substance, of course, for Aristotle was a combination of form, or essence, and matter (essence being the limiting factor of matter). Nonetheless, the question of being is a perennial one.

3Here, it is claimed that although the past no longer exists, it is a real object of study and perceptual thought and, therefore, has reality. That is, it has being and is related to being even though it is no longer in act or has actual existence. Humans are cognitively wired in some way to discern the past. Moral truths apply to history because of their transcendent nature.