The second volume in the Blackwell Great Minds series, Gareth B. Matthews's Augustine offers students, scholars, and interested readers new insights into one of antiquity's most important and influential philosophers. This lucid survey takes readers on a thought-provoking tour through the life and work of Augustine. Topics discussed include skepticism, language acquisition, mind - body dualism, philosophical dream problems, time and creation, faith and reason, foreknowledge and free will. The book concludes with a consideration of how Augustine could be both a religious believer - indeed, a prominent theological dogmatist - and also a Socratic philosopher.

Author Biography

Gareth B. Matthews is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts. His publications include Socratic Perplexity and the Nature of Philosophy (1999), The Augustinian Tradition (ed., 1999) and Augustine: On the Trinity ? Books 8?15 (ed., 2002).