What is three?
Describe it. Draw it--Nope, not the symbol for three; draw three. You cannot do it, can you? This is because numbers are not physical entities; they are mental entities. The truest form of numbers is only found in the mind, never elsewhere.
To prove this idea, think about three. It can be pictured in the mind quite easily--in its entirety. As Augustine mentions the idea of numbers being entities only fully available in the mind (p. 190), he supports his argument of memory-- that not everything can be learned via sensory perception. There is more. The soul itself has a different form of learning.
As this is pondered, Plato's immortality of the soul concept comes into play. Augustine even uses the idea of "recollection." As I do not have quite enough time or space to fully delve into this correlation, here is a quick thought:
Perhaps Plato was only off a little bit on the immortality of the soul/ recollection. As man is made in the image of God, usually discussed as a matter of the soul, then man could have been created with full knowledge of Creation. As man recollects this full knowledge, lost at the fall, he learns more of God and His Creation--namely himself (man's self). Man lost clarity, and in that--lost himself. Only through recollecting, of God and through Him, can man see himself as he was meant to be.
Just some thoughts.
P.S. I commented on Ollie Finley and Hannah Atkins' posts.
Very interesting way to look at it. I have considered the fact possibility of us having to have some knowledge of God due to Him being our Creator. I feel that where our heart is and how the Spirit is moving determines whether we acknowledge it.
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