Abstract
In the tenth book of the Confessions, St. Augustine raised the question of man for the first time in its modern version. In the midst of what would now be called an existential analysis of the mystery of human existence, he writes, “And I directed my thoughts to myself and said, ‘Who art thou?’ and I answered, ‘a man’2.” In another place, he inquires, “What then am I, O God. Of what nature am I3?” And further on “… I have become a puzzle to myself, and this is my infirmity4.”
“By space the universe embraces and swallows me up like an atom, by thought I embrace the universe”
Pascal
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Reference
Pascal, B.: Pensées, H. F. Stewart trans., 161. Pantheon, N. Y. 1950.
Augustine, St.: The Confessions, X, 6, trans. J. G. Pilkington. Liveright, N. Y. 1943.
Gilson, E.: Elements of Christian Philosophy, 9, Doubleday, N. Y. 1960.
Gilson, E.: The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, Scribners, N. Y. 1963.
Descartes, R.: Discourse on Method, part IV in Descartes’ selections, 30. Scribners, N. Y.: Ed. by R. M. Eaton 1927.
Aristotle: De Sensu, Chap. I, 436a, 16, trans. by J. I. Beare, in The Works of Aristotle. Oxford: Ed. by W. D. Ross 1931.
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© 1966 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
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Pellegrino, E.D. (1966). Medicine, Philosophy and Man’s Infirmity. In: von Baeyer, W., Griffith, R.M. (eds) Conditio Humana. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85978-6_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85978-6_19
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