Praxis, Conversio, and Anagoge: The Cognitive Architecture of Philosophical Ascent in Plato and Augustine

This thesis argues that both Plato and Augustine deploy narrative-symbolic strategies— alongside abstract rational argumentation—which are essential to their philosophical projects and function by bringing about a process of transformation in their readers. These strategies include dialogue, myth, confession, dramatization, and symbolism. I will examine their exposition of anagoge, or dramatized upward journeys—erōs and dialectical ascent in Plato; grace and confessional return in Augustine. These present notions and processes of ethical movement, which simultaneously also draw the reader to participate in moving from ignorance to insight, from disordered desire to alignment with the highest Good. I propose that these non- propositional executions within their works are not ornamental or tangential but integral to their educational aims. They are designed to help reorganize perception, inspire personal reorientation, and guide intra-psychic realignment. To interpret these features,...Show moreThis thesis argues that both Plato and Augustine deploy narrative-symbolic strategies— alongside abstract rational argumentation—which are essential to their philosophical projects and function by bringing about a process of transformation in their readers. These strategies include dialogue, myth, confession, dramatization, and symbolism. I will examine their exposition of anagoge, or dramatized upward journeys—erōs and dialectical ascent in Plato; grace and confessional return in Augustine. These present notions and processes of ethical movement, which simultaneously also draw the reader to participate in moving from ignorance to insight, from disordered desire to alignment with the highest Good. I propose that these non- propositional executions within their works are not ornamental or tangential but integral to their educational aims. They are designed to help reorganize perception, inspire personal reorientation, and guide intra-psychic realignment. To interpret these features, I employ a method grounded in recent developments in cognitive science, particularly embodied, embedded, and enactive cognition paradigms. I draw on insights conceptually tied to this paradigm, such as Antonio Damasio's Somatic Marker Hypothesis, John Vervaeke’s 4P model of knowing (procedural, perspectival, participatory, and propositional) and recursive relevance realization framework, and the concept of Future- Oriented Mental Time Travel. Accordingly, the structure of this thesis reflects this insight. I will demonstrate that distinct elements of the philosophical works of Plato and Augustine are designed to reach beyond the function of being vehicles for theoretical communication, and instead are performative instruments that elicit emotional, perspectival, and volitional shifts precisely because they align so closely with fundamental human cognitive processes subsumed into perspectival, ethical, and spiritual reorientation. While Plato and Augustine have been widely compared on metaphysical, ethical, and spiritual grounds, fewer studies have examined how they communicate transformation—how their literary, dramatic, and narrative forms compare in functioning as tools of educational psychagogy (soul-guiding transformation). This thesis addresses the crucial yet underexplored aspect of deeper functional resemblance between Plato and Augustine. By focusing on the cognitive dynamics underlying their strategies, it sheds light on why their works, aimed at altering perception and orientation, remain philosophically influential. This interpretative strategy thus offers two contributions. First, it provides a comparative hermeneutics rooted in function rather than doctrine, enabling cross-historical and cross-theological dialogue without flattening or relativizing distinct metaphysical positions. Second, it offers an integrative hermeneutics that connects ancient philosophy to contemporary cognitive science, thereby illuminating how their philosophical ideas and educational strategies engage readers through resonating with fundamental human cognitive tendencies.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Praxis, Conversio, and Anagoge: The Cognitive Architecture of Philosophical Ascent in Plato and Augustine