Memory in Saint Augustine: A Reconsideration of Its Categorization as a Faculty in the De Trinitate

Gómez S.T. · Revista Chilena de Estudios Medievales (2025)

Resumen

In the De Trinitate, Saint Augustine discusses of a trinity within the soul: memory, intellect, and will. These three realities have often been interpreted as if they were all faculties or inner powers. This paper will propose a critical reconsideration of this interpretation, with a focus on the notion of memory. Through textual and conceptual analysis, it will be argued that Augustine’s account of memory is closer to a habit than to a faculty in the strict sense. It will also be maintained that understanding memory as a faculty problematically broadens the scope of its nature or domain. In this way, the article seeks to qualify the classical characterization of Augustine’s trinity of the soul and to open new avenues for its understanding. It will further be shown that, for Augustine, memory cannot be reduced to a mere mechanism of retention or recall. Rather, conceiving it as a habit allows for a clearer account of its relation to the soul and to that form of self-presence which precedes the actual exercise of self-knowledge. Whereas the latter requires the operation of faculties such as intellect and will, memory appears as a constant background, a stable disposition that safeguards the identity of the subject. In this sense, it will be argued that memory manifests itself in different ways: as a habitual reality, as the intimate repository of fundamental notions, and, in a certain way, as the place where the presence of the divine is inscribed in the human being. Self-knowledge, therefore, will not consist merely in recalling what has been lived, but in actualizing what is already inscribed in human nature.

Instituciones: Universidad de Piura