Philosophy: Basic Questions



Philosophy: Basic Questions;

Worksheet on Augustine on free will (“On Free Choice of the Will”, Book II, pp. 341-343)

1. After having discussed the nature of free will in Bk. I, Evodius then asks Augustine a question. What is this?

2. How does Augustine in the rest of Sect. 1 of Bk. II reply to this question? Do you find his reply satisfactory? Why or why not?

3. In Bk I., Sect. 2, Evodius asks a slightly different question? What’s this?

4. How does Augustine reply to this question? Do you find his reply satisfactory? Why or why not?

5. Later on in Bk. II (in sections unfortunately not included in our textbook), Augustine argues that God exists and that every good thing is from God. Evodius then asks why free will is a good thing, since it can be used for evil as well as good. In reply, Augustine uses the analogy between free will and parts of our bodies:

“Consider what a great good a body is missing if it has no hands. And yet people use their hands wrongly in committing violent or shameful acts. If you see someone who has no feet, you admit that his physical well-being is impaired by the absence of so great a good, and yet you would not deny that someone who uses his feet to harm someone else or to disgrace himself is using them wrongly. By our eyes we see light and we distinguish the forms of material objects. They are the most beautiful thing in our bodies, so they were put into the place of greatest dignity [i.e., the head]; and we use them to preserve our safety and to secure many other good things in life. Nonetheless, many people use their eyes to do many evil things and press them into the service of inordinate desire; and yet you realize what a great good is missing in a fact that has no eyes. But when they are present, who gave them, if not God, the generous giver of all good things? So just as you approve of these good things in the body and praise the one who gave them, disregarding those who use them wrongly, you should admit that free will, without which no one can live rightly, is a good and divine gift. You should condemn those who misuse this good rather than saying that he who gave it should not have given it” (Bk. II, Sect. 18).

What’s the point of Augustine’s analogy between free will and parts of our bodies? Do you find it a convincing reply to Evodius’ question? Explain.

6. In another passage (also unfortunately not included in our textbook), Augustine distinguishes between three kinds of good things:

1) great goods: the virtues that are necessary and sufficient for living rightly, and which no one can thus use badly (such as justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and right reason);

2) intermediate goods: the powers of the soul that are necessary but not sufficient for living rightly, and which can thus be used either well or badly;

and

3) lowest goods: the forms of bodies, which are neither necessary nor sufficient for righteous living.

Question: What would Augustine say about free will? That is, is it a great good, an intermediate good, or a lowest good? What’s your reasoning for this conclusion?

7. Augustine’s most sophisticated definition of evil is this (in a passage – yes again – unfortunately not included in our textbook):

“[T]he goods that are pursued by sinners are in no way evil things, and neither is free will itself… What is evil is the turning of the will away from the unchangeable good [i.e., God, justice, and the truths of mathematics] and toward [physical, private, and] changeable goods. And since this turning is not coerced, but voluntary, it is justly and deservedly punished with misery” (Bk. II, Sect. 19).

Augustine then anticipates Evodius’ reply to this:

“But perhaps you are going to ask what is the source of this movement by which the will turns away from the unchangeable good toward a changeable good. This movement is certainly evil, since no one can live rightly without it. For if that movement, that turning away from the Lord God, is undoubtedly sin, surely we cannot say that God is the cause of sin. So that movement is not from God. But then where does it come from? If I told you that I don’t know, you might be disappointed; but that would be the truth. For one cannot know that which is nothing” (Bk. II, Sect. 20).

Question: What, then, is sin (for Augustine), and what causes it?

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