Conceptual certainty as fallen reality: St. Augustine of Hippo and the Natural Law Tradition

Abstract

This thesis reinterprets the significance of the Doctrine of the Fall to Augustine’s relationship with the Natural Law Tradition by arguing that his literal reading of events in the Garden of Eden supports not just the traditional narrative of a fall from righteousness, but also the description of a move from one epistemic condition to another. From such beginnings it is concluded that political society is remedial not just in relation to sinful nature but also a metaphysical fact; and in this way the Fall's diagnostic potential is broadened, setting it up as the premise for an intellectually solvent meta-narrative account of the human condition.