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  • Essay / Definition of evil according to Augustine: physical evil and moral evil

    Table of contentsIntroductionDifferent types of evilPhysical evilMoral evilWhether God knows everything in advance or free choiceConclusionIntroductionThe problem of evil has always called into question the rational capacity of human beings. Questions such as what is evil, what is evil, what is the cause of evil, is there a relationship between the good God and evil are relevant even in contemporary society. Although there are a multitude of views regarding the concept of evil. The problem of evil raised by Augustine has always been an enigma for many philosophers. There are three types of evil according to Augustine. They are metaphysical, physical and moral. In this mission, I would like to focus more on physical evil and moral evil. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayDifferent Types of EvilAugustine began by saying that God created all things perfect, both humans and animals, but because l man has turned away from the highest good (God), he has failed in relation to original justice. As a result, suffering and pain appeared in the world. Thus, according to Augustine, evil does not have its own existence but exists as a deprivation of good. Saint Augustine described evil as Boni deprivation. Evil is something related to the wickedness of human actions. According to Saint Augustine, evils are of three types: metaphysical evil, physical evil and moral evil. Here, metaphysical evil is not really evil. Physical Evil Physical evil is also known as natural evil. Physical evil is independent of human will. Physical evil depends on the functioning of nature. It is something of a disorder of nature. Examples of physical evils are hurricanes, cyclones, famine, pests, earthquakes, falling trees, death, etc. Death is a physical evil because it hinders mental peace and harmony. Physical evil is a natural phenomenon and it is harmful to human beings. They are not moral. A human being is not morally responsible for physical harm. Evil or suffering that is not the result of a rational being but rather of the course of physical events. When Augustine speaks of physical evil in the City of God, he says: “I must now turn to those calamities which are the one thing which our accusers I have no desire to endure. Such are hunger, disease, natural disasters.” All of these evils listed by Augustine do not make people evil because they are unable to regulate them because they occur naturally. Nevertheless, Augustine traced the origin of these natural evils over which man has no control, to the collapse of the first man, asserting that when Adam was formed he lived in a state of grace , a state of eternal happiness, but he immediately surrendered. He turned to God's will and turned to his own will, failing in damnation. Therefore suffering and pain, which were the consequences of his fall, fell upon him. This is what Augustine explained very well in On the Free Choice of the Will by saying that: “When the first man was damned, his happiness was not revoked to the point of depriving him of his capacity to have children. From his descendant, a beautiful ornament of this world was born. However, it was not right for him to father better offspring than he himself was” (On the free choices of his will). This directly implies that Adam's sin is seminal in us and that is why we experience all the suffering that the first man experienced as a result of his fall. EvilmoralGod created each human being out of love and with free will. Moral evil is therefore caused by the violation of free will. Moral evil is a direct violation of the moral law. It is different from physical evil and intellectual error. Moral evil, called sin by theists, includes injustices committed by people, such as lying, stealing, and murder. Evil or suffering that is the result of the action of a rational being. Augustine's main motive in philosophy was the search for the cause of moral evil in the globe because his adolescence and youth were engulfed by lust and promiscuity. He decided to search for a new paradigm of life and find out why there is so much evil in people's lives. This quest brought him into the hands of the Manichaeans who informed him of the values ​​of light and darkness which bring about good and evil respectively in people's lives. Drawing on the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus, he rejected the hypothesis and recognized moral evil as a deprivation of a practically due good generated by free and responsible moral agents. The central paradox of the problem of evil can be briefly stated. If God is perfect goodness and omnipotent, evil cannot exist. But it is clearly a reality of some kind and one of formidable power. So, if we are to admit its existence, one of the other two “poles” must shift. Or we must say that God is not entirely good and that he allows or even is the author of evil. Or we must say that God is not omnipotent, and although he is entirely good and would prevent evil if he could, he is powerless to stop it. It is in these terms that the dilemma presented itself in Augustine's time. » The Manichean explanation of the problem of evil separated the three “poles” of divine goodness, divine omnipotence and the presence of evil by separating good and the omnipotence of evil. God. In human beings, composed of body and soul, the eternal war in the universe has been rewarded in the microcosm. This went a long way toward explaining the observable evils of the human condition and Augustine's own awareness of internal conflicts. It also made it possible to understand human souls as sparks of the good spirit stuck in evil material bodies. “The Christian Augustine was never quite able to free himself from certain Manichean legacies in his own approach to the problem of evil. When freeing himself from the Manichaeans, Augustine was forced to turn to an explanation of the problem of evil. . Thus, sin and evil become aspects of the same problem. Believing that evil was the result of an evil act of will by a rational creature fit the case of Satan as well as that of humanity. This gave Augustine a cause of evil that did not reside in a God who was entirely good and therefore incapable of evil. »“Another aspect of the consequences of evil is the tendency towards distortion of intellectual perception, taking the form of deformation. So that the sinner could no longer see things as they are. » “The interferences of sin and evil with intellectual understanding logically come first because no thinker hindered by them can find his way to a solution of the problem of evil. » “He and his informal philosophical group explored the ways in which the seemingly disorderly events of the universe can be seen as matters of providence. They must do so if God is indeed omnipotent and therefore omniscient. But to achieve this, those who seem evil must somehow be transformed into good ones, otherwise he cannot accept them. Thus, he eliminates "chance" as a form of evil and seeks to place all.