El término Nihil en De Magistro de Agustín de Hipona y sus consecuencias gnoseológicas

Abstract

This communication seeks to investigate the question that makes Augustine about the relationship between ‘words’ and ‘things’ in the De Magistro dialogue. Evoking the verse of Virgil in Chapter II, the question arises about the term nihil and wether, semiotically, it can be considered a sign or not. The dialogue
would innovate in this absolute and arbitrary intermediate –uncertain, Vague–, which is to discuss “how to say what is not but nonetheless has a meaning”. In this context the theory of Illuminatio regains some validity as it makes possible both intellectual intuition and sensible apprehension, which leads to a semiotics of suppositio as explanation of those relations, specifically in the case of term nihil as opposed to ens, which not only indicates absence but also ineffability. On the basis of the analysis of the term nihil in the dialogue, we dare to hold, for this topic, the claim that Augustine instead of refuting scepticism is in fact accepting it.