Abstract
Augustine did not draw sharp lines between philosophy and theology. This could be because he was heavily influenced by Platonism. He described the motive which led people to philosophize in Ciceronian terms as the search for happiness. ‘Liberal artsȁ examines Augustine's strong notion of the doctrine of being and of how things are, and how he modified details of this notion. In so far as Augustine accepted the Platonic arguments he was heavily influenced by, he always turned them to conclusions defined by his faith. He only dissented from the Platonic tradition if it proved to be incompatible with the implications of the catholic creed.