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| A Caravaggio painting of Saint Augustine. Courtesy: The Guardian |
In his dialogue with his son Adeodatus, recorded as
'On the Teacher' (389 AD), Saint Augustine has put forward his views on how one
can learn, more specifically what agent can help one learn. In this context, he
has also discussed roles of signs, words in particular, in the
teaching-learning process. Though the father and son at first agree that a
major function of signs is teaching, later they conclude that signs cannot help
anyone to teach or learn. Thus, for Augustine, no sign in itself is capable of
any help to facilitate understanding.
By signs, Augustine basically means words. In the
first part of the discussion, the philosopher and his son agree that signs that
signify something also can teach about the things they signify. Discussing
purposes of language, they have concluded that words as signs are used
"only for the sake of teaching or reminding" (Augustine 160). Up to
this point, the son Adeodatus seems to have understood that teaching something
without signs is really difficult, that essentially means signs are capable of
teaching. But as the discussion goes on, Augustine helps his naïve son explore
the complex nature of signs and alter his views.
Augustine views signs cannot help in understanding
because they do not signify anything unless a person already knows about the
concept/thing it signifies. He has so famously claimed, "Nothing is
learned through its signs" (Augustine 166). He further explains it to his
son that "When a sign is given to me, it can teach me nothing if it finds
me ignorant of the thing of which it is the sign; but if I'm not ignorant, what
do I learn through the sign?" (Augustine 166). People know what signs signify only when they
already have acquainted with what they signify. For example, one knows what the
English word "computer" signifies when it is pronounced if and only
if s/he has seen a computer or at least heard something about it so that s/he
can draw its conceptual image in the mind. If the word is pronounced to a
tribal man living in a primitive society – who never heard about neither saw a
computer - it is not possible for him to learn what it means by merely
listening to the word (even if he knows English). He does not know anything
with that utterance because he cannot form an image in his mind about what it
signifies.
So a claim that the word "computer" taught
its reader/hearer a computer is also false because s/he has already learnt
that! If s/he had not, s/he could not have drawn its image upon hearing the
first utterance of the word as explained above. That is why, Augustine states,
"a sign is learned when the thing is known, rather than the thing being
learned when the sign is given" (Augustine 166). Thus it is not a word
that teaches, but some image already within the person and the real thing in
the world. Augustine exemplifies this argument with a hypothetical situation
when someone taught him that the word "sarabarae" means head
coverings by pointing to actual head coverings. In this situation, he learnt
what it meant not because of the word pronounced, but because he saw it. He
says, "When I learned the thing itself, I trusted my eyes, not the words
of another" (Augustine 167).
Signs, in a deep analysis, signify nothing but only
chain of other signs. Augustine challenges his son to tell what a word means
without using other words (which he cannot, but understands the inability of
signs to signify things in themselves), "You have explained signs by means
of signs and familiar things by the same familiar things" (Augustine
162). In a seemingly Derridean
deconstructionist tone, Augustine later explains, "From words, we learn
only words" (Augustine 167). This is similar to Derrida's explanation of
signifier and signified in the discourse of deconstruction. For Derrida,
"language does not consist of the union of signifiers and signifieds; it
consists only of chains of signifiers" (Tyson 252). Thus, as Derrida,
Augustine too believes that signs cannot signify the signified, but mere chain
of signifiers. This ultimately leads to the conclusion that they cannot teach
anyone anything they signify (because they do not essentially signify!).
He further supports his argument that too frequently
signs are meaningless and they do not refer to anything. There are many
situations in which words do not convey the thought of the speaker. Such
situations include "lies and other deceptions, recitations of a memorised
speech…, slips of the tongue (and) misunderstandings and mishearing"
(Quinn 176). Once being unable to refer/signify
anything, they are automatically incapable of teaching the user their
(signified) meanings.
So how one learns when signs can be of no help?
Augustine solves this problem with his idea of the "Teacher within"
(soul) who is divine. The "Teacher within" is also believed to be the
Christ, for Augustine (Quinn 173). Whatever, the "Teacher within" is
a part of the God, who is the supreme Teacher, who is consulted in every moment
of knowledge acquisition, "He Who is said to dwell in the inner man, does
teach: Christ – that is, the unchangeable power and everlasting wisdom of God,
which every rational soul does consult…" (Augustine 168). And,
interestingly, this Teacher does not need any sign to teach. He can show the
things themselves without any sign being used to refer them. "Christ
teaches by showing or presenting directly to the learner's mind, not signs for
intelligible things, but the intelligible things signified by such signs"
(Quinn 175). This is what human teachers cannot do.
We generally think what we perceive in the world, we
perceive through language, consisting of signs or words. In this sense,
believing that we learn from/with signs is a valid argument. But, as Augustine
explores from his theological point of view, language is not that much capable,
consistent and dependable. Rather, their nature is slippery (the feature which modern
linguistic philosophers like Derrida use to further explore language and
construct the theory of deconstruction). For Augustine, words as signs cannot
help one learn, teach or understand unless there are other signs and unless
there are mental images within.
Works
Cited
Augustine. "On the Teacher." Philosophy of Education: The Essential Texts. Ed. Steven
M. Cahn. New York: Routledge. 2009. 159-172.
Quinn, Philip L. "Afterword." Philosophy of Education: The Essential Texts. Ed. Steven
M. Cahn. New York: Routledge. 2009. 173-177.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. 2nd
ed. New York: Routledge, 2008.
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