POST 4: AUGUSTINE VS AQUINAS

Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 16:45:53

augustine's philosophical view stems from the simple idea of "the love of god." his theory starts by his trying to provide an answer to the problem of evil. the problem of evil basically states that if god is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent, then there cannot be evil in this world; but evil exists, thus god does not exist. augustine provides a reasoning to refute this claim, by arguing that all things are created good, but not PERFECTLY good, and therefore, are "liable to corruption." for augustine, evil is simply a lack of good. another problem that augustine addresses is the fact that god allows us to choose evil, while he can prevent us from doing so, given that he's all-powerful. augustine then makes a claim that even evil is used to fulfil god's will; he argues that since god is omnipotent, if he desires evil to cease, it will, but since evil exists, then it must exist because god wills it, in a "way unspeakably strange and wonderful." another problem of evil is with regard to divine foreknowledge, which claims that human has no free will since god already knows what is about to happen. this is also adressed by augustine by arguing that god knows what is going to happen, but god does NOT cause it to happen. human beings have free will, and god knows what would happen if they make choices using their wills, but this is different than when god CAUSES an event to occur, for the former means human beings possess free will, while the latter not.

having addressed all the problems of evil, augustine continues on to discuss his ethical theory, again based on "the love of god." following his first claim evil is simply the absence of good, and that people who are evil simply fail to choose good, he divides people into two categories. the ones who choose good live in the city of god, and the ones who choose evil live in the city of man. he claims that the ones living in the city of god live "after the spirit" and the ones in the city of man live "after the flesh." augustine also points out by saying that "life eternal is the supreme good, death eternal the supreme evil," the claim that these supreme good and evil do not belong in the momentary world we live in currently; they belong in the afterlife. the essential point of augustine's theory is his idea on faith being the most fundamental of all, since with faith one is able to look beyond rationality for reasons and explanations on why things happen. augustine claims that god's wisdom is beyond our understanding, and sometimes it makes no sense since there is often such a case where "this good man is poor and that bad man rich." however, this is where faith comes into play; by having faith, one is able to accept these seemingly injustice, because in the eyes of god, it is divine justice. another thing that augustine considers fundamental is love, and love is the foundation of peace. in his example using the city of god and city of man, augustine claims that citizens of both city desire peace, but citizens in the city of man never achieve it since they are using war, not love, as a method to achieving peace.

aquinas' ethical theory stems from his belief that everything has an end and one's action towards this end is initiated by an agent. aquinas argues that all things must have an end, otherwise "action would tend to infinity." aquinas then defines what a "proper end" is, by using a somewhat aristotelian concept; he argues that all action and movement is aims for a good, and therefore, seeks "some perfection," and there is only one supreme good that is perfect, and that is god himself. thus, "all things are directed to the highest good, namely god, as their end." aquinas then claims that one needs guidance if one were to aim one's actions toward the highest good, which is god, and for this reason, god creates laws which are eternal and human beings are given rationality to use this law as a guidance toward their end. aquinas also engages in the discussion about bad and good and claims that "good and evil pertain essentially to the will." he argues that "the act of the will is not always good, but sometimes evil," implying that the goodness or badness of something must be sought in the will of the action, because only actions that is willed to be evil can be evil. this leads to his eventual conclusion that the consequences of an action DO NOT determine whether an action is evil or good. this is because the consequences "are not foreseen" and therefore one can only distinguish the good and the evil solely from the will of the action.

the theory of aquinas and augustine both have many similarities, among which is that both admit to god as a supreme being that everyone must conform to. however, as in other comparisons we have done, the basis of their theory is quite different. while both admit to god, augustine highly regards faith, while aquinas highly regards human reasonings. augustine uses the idea of faith to counter the problem of evil, eventually concluding that wisdom of god is beyond human reasonings and in order for one to be able to justify events, one needs to have faith. aquinas on the other hand, seems to be a bit aristotelian by claiming that everything is directed toward an end. the end not being specific pleasure or happiness, but to god, which is the supreme good. aquinas also regards highly of the law of god, that he considers as being "eternal law," and from here concludes that the end (the supreme good) can only be achieved if one uses reasonings (that ar given by god) to use the laws as their guidance.