to evil or not to evil?

On the Free Choice of the Will—Saint Augustine

Evodius and Augustine set off to find the source of evil. Augustine initially makes the distinction between evildoing and evil suffering; for if someone commits a crime and is punished (specifically by God) and as an extension of this they suffer one cannot consider this kind of suffering or malice as evil—surely God isn’t capable of evil. This gravitates our understanding of evil to the elements that focus on the act itself rather than its reception. Before moving forward, Augustine reminds us that God is the source of all good and has created everything good (out of nothing), he himself is more excellent than what he created, and he was not aided in creating by any other being. This is to assert that God cannot be held accountable for evil and to eliminate any notion we may hold of evil as a force that equals God in power and might.

Evodius goes on to propose whether evil is something that is learned (considering we are created good). In order to determine that we must examine learning; knowledge is “given or awakened” through the process of learning. Furthermore, learning cannot be divorced from its product: understanding, the chief of human goods, according to Evodius… But he remains dissatisfied and wants to know the source of evildoing. But before knowing of evil’s cause we must understand what evil is. First, our judgment of what evil is should not rely on our own personal tolerance of it; in other words, we should move away from ascribing relativism to evil. Second, we must not look to the law as the last resort of authority over the nature of things. As Evodius stated, “it is not evil because the law forbids it; rather the law forbids it because it evil.” Political or social law therefore retains its efficiency in proportion to its faithfulness in divine or religious law. Something we have covered already concerning the unchanging, immutable, perfection of divine law from where political law encounters its point of departure.

Evodius brings up another interesting point when he states that good law can be enacted by someone who is not good himself. This ties into what Prof. Vaught mentioned in class today that our knowledge is divorced from our actions. We can know certain things but it does not assure that this knowledge will always permeate to or even guide our actions. Experience, according to Augustine, accounts for this realization. Sin, ultimately derives from our loving perishable things before God. Once the will, which is free to fix its attention on anything it chooses, directs this attention and love toward material things, sin is produced as a consequence. Reason, the faculty that allows accurate examination of truth and its possible acquisition can guide the will towards the highest, God.

Question: Intent vs. Action. Evodius mentions at one point that if it is just the killing of another human being, it should not be considered murder. This reminds me of the biological person vs. the developed personality covered earlier this semester. He goes on to exemplify that when a soldier kills an enemy or a judge condemns a criminal to death, then these deaths cannot be considered murder. In other words, within a state or society, acts that prompt the removal of citizenship could be punished by death; and killing is acceptable if ordained by the state.

Conclusion: Whether Socrates or Augustine, the first commandment nonetheless reigns true: love God your creator above all else.