Editing Augustine of Hippo (section)

=== In philosophy ===
[[Philosopher]] [[Bertrand Russell]] was impressed by Augustine's meditation on the nature of time in the ''Confessions'', comparing it favourably to [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'s version of the view that time is subjective.{{sfn|Russell|1945|pp=352–353}} Catholic theologians generally subscribe to Augustine's belief that God exists [[eternity|outside of time]] in the "eternal present"; that time only exists within the created universe because only in space is time discernible through motion and change. His meditations on the nature of time are closely linked to his consideration of the human ability of [[memory]]. [[Frances Yates]] in her 1966 study ''[[The Art of Memory]]'' argues that a brief passage of the ''Confessions'', 10.8.12, in which Augustine writes of walking up a flight of stairs and entering the vast fields of memory<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.stoa.org/hippo/text10.html#TB10C8S12| title = Confessiones Liber X: commentary on 10.8.12| access-date = 6 November 2004| archive-date = 20 October 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141020081133/http://www.stoa.org/hippo/text10.html#TB10C8S12| url-status = dead}} ''(in Latin)''</ref> clearly indicates that the ancient Romans were aware of how to use explicit spatial and architectural metaphors as a [[mnemonic]] technique for organizing large amounts of information.

Augustine's philosophical method, especially demonstrated in his ''Confessions'', had a continuing influence on Continental philosophy throughout the 20th century. His descriptive approach to intentionality, memory, and language as these phenomena are experienced within consciousness and time anticipated and inspired the insights of modern [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] and [[hermeneutics]].{{sfn|De Paulo|2006|p=}} [[Edmund Husserl]] writes: "The analysis of time-consciousness is an age-old crux of descriptive psychology and theory of knowledge. The first thinker to be deeply sensitive to the immense difficulties to be found here was Augustine, who laboured almost to despair over this problem."{{sfn|Husserl|2019|p=21}}

[[Martin Heidegger]] refers to Augustine's descriptive philosophy at several junctures in his influential work ''[[Being and Time]]''.{{efn|For example, [[Martin Heidegger]]'s articulations of how "[[Being-in-the-world]]" is described through thinking about ''seeing'': "The remarkable priority of 'seeing' was noticed particularly by Augustine, in connection with his Interpretation of ''concupiscentia''." Heidegger then quotes the ''Confessions'': "Seeing belongs properly to the eyes. But we even use this word 'seeing' for the other senses when we devote them to cognizing... We not only say, 'See how that shines', ... 'but we even say, 'See how that sounds'". ''Being and Time'', Trs. Macquarrie & Robinson. New York: Harpers, 1964, p. 171.}} [[Hannah Arendt]] began her philosophical writing with a dissertation on Augustine's concept of love, ''Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin'' (1929): "The young Arendt attempted to show that the philosophical basis for ''vita socialis'' in Augustine can be understood as residing in neighbourly love, grounded in his understanding of the common origin of humanity."{{sfn|Chiba|1995|p=507}}

Jean Bethke Elshtain in ''Augustine and the Limits of Politics'' tried to associate Augustine with Arendt in their concept of evil: "Augustine did not see evil as glamorously demonic but rather as absence of good, something which paradoxically is really nothing. Arendt ... envisioned even the extreme evil which produced [[the Holocaust]] as merely banal [in ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem]]'']."{{sfn|Tinder|1997|pp=432–433}} Augustine's philosophical legacy continues to influence contemporary critical theory through the contributions and inheritors of these 20th-century figures. Seen from a historical perspective, there are three main perspectives on the political thought of Augustine: first, political Augustinianism; second, Augustinian [[political theology]]; and third, Augustinian political theory.{{sfn|Woo|2015|pp=421–441}}