How to Journal Like St. Augustine (Soliloquy Notebook)
Talk to Yourself Like an Ancient Philosopher in Order to Live an Examined Life
“I question myself and I respond to myself, as if reason and I were two, although I was alone.” - Augustine, Revisions I.4.1
St. Augustine is a giant figure in Western philosophy and theology. His ideas and his influence are ubiquitous and it would take this entire post (and then some) to list just where I’ve noticed his influence in Western thought—and I haven’t even been looking that hard.
So, I’m not going to try and give an intro to Augustine here. I am starting a digital introduction to philosophy project here on Parker’s Ponderings, and I will definitely do a few entries on Augustine there. But here in this post, I’ll just say Augustine is perhaps the most prominent Christian philosopher in the history of the Church, and one of the most influence philosophers in all of Western history.
While his influence and many of his ideas are still widely discussed and studied today, it’s actually one of his least known ideas that I want to cover in this post, because it’s eminently practical and beneficial for self-knowledge, and thus should be way more widely known and utilized. The idea is the philosophical soliloquy.
Socrates is attributed with saying that “the unexamined life is not worth living”. Now, I’m not sure 1. how true that is, 2. whether or not he even said that, and 3. what direct implications that statement has for the ‘examined life’—even if the unexamined life is not worth living, that doesn’t say whether or not the examined life is any more worth living. But in my case, journaling about my ideas and keeping a diary to occasionally write down what I’m feeling and experiencing have both been beneficial for me and I actually do think my life has felt more “worth living” since I’ve begun examining it and the soliloquy is one of the tools that helps me do that well.
The soliloquy is something of a blend between a journal entry (ideas) and a diary (experience and emotions).
If you’re curious about my distinction between a ‘journal’ and a ‘diary’ make sure to subscribe because I’m working on a post about that distinction as well.
So in this post, I’m going to briefly lay out Augustine’s method of philosophical soliloquy and then I’ll explain how I use it as a journaling habit to help me gain self-knowledge, think through my own thoughts discursively, and gain some solace, comfort, and cognitive rest. Then I’ll show you a couple ways you can keep your own soliloquies for self-knowledge. I like to write and keep mine in a physical notebook but if you like some digital analog better, you can easily do that as well.
You’re about to run into a paywall. These kinds of posts are my first stabs at ideas for my forthcoming book, Journal Like a Philosopher. I’m working out the ideas here on Substack for my paid subscribers to benefit from and to them a chance to give me feedback so I can make sure to give them more of what they want in the final draft.
If you want to join along and get access to these and all the rest of my Notebook Philosophy posts, as well as a whole ton of other exclusive posts and access to the paid subscriber chat where you can ask me your questions directly, then upgrade to a paid subscription and come join us. It helps support my work and it will benefit you as well—a win-win.
Augustine’s Invention of the Soliloquy
In the fall of 386 AD, ST. Augustine took a vacation with some friends, a couple students, his son, and his mother Monica, to Cassiciacum in Northern Italy to recover from an illness and do some deep thinking. There, Augustine produced what’s come to be known as “the Cassiciacum Dialogues” which include Against the Academics, On the Happy Life, On Order, and The Soliloquies. In the introduction to the Yale University Press edition of Soliloquies, translator/annotator/commentator, Michael Foley, argues that Augustine’s dialogues are closer to Cicero’s than Plato’s: