Augustine: The Philosopher Who Solved Anxiety | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU
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More and more young people today suffer from anxiety, depression, or loneliness. But it turns out this isn’t a new problem. Sixteen hundred years ago, a restless university student named Augustine suffered the same maladies. This young man, who would become one of history’s most famous philosophers, found a solution. It still works today. Owen Anderson, Arizona State professor of philosophy and religious studies, tells the story.
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Transcript:
Augustine: The Philosopher Who Solved Anxiety
Presented by Owen Anderson
Recent studies report that almost two-thirds of college students suffer from anxiety, depression, or loneliness. They feel restless, empty, overcome with self-loathing. They try therapy. They try psychiatric drugs. They try political activism. They might even try to radically change their sexual identity.
But the anxiety doesn’t go away. In fact, it often gets worse.
This is not a new problem. Sixteen hundred years ago, a young man, a student of philosophy and law, trying to find his place in the world, felt exactly the same way. He was born on the north coast of Africa in modern-day Algeria.
His name was Augustine.
He felt a gnawing emptiness he couldn’t quite explain. To find fulfillment, he plunged himself into worldly pleasures. He chased after women — he described himself as “a slave to lust…” He even tried petty crime just for the thrill of it. He and his college friends—they called themselves “the wreckers”—spent their days, as he put it, “being
