Philosophy 2

A detailed Summary of Philosophy 2

#2 Explain how Augustine's conception of freedom relates to compatibilism and to freedom in the sense of autonomy.

According to Augustine, "Human beings are endowed with a power that he calls the will." He emphasizes the will to being the center of freedom. Unlike other philosophers, who are determinists, Augustine, who has a libertarian view, sees our will as free choice. So for whatever we may choose to do, we become solely responsible for our actions which are caused by external factors instead of internal ones.

From a determinism perspective, there is a order called the casual chain, where at the time that a choice is made, the state of mind and or characteristic of a person may have is the cause of a previous condition and eventually links back before the person's life. Augustine does not believe that our choices are determined by inter

nal factors because the responsibility of those choices are beyond our control and alleviates us from such a thing. Therefore freedom no longer exists because the choice was made from within. This is compatibilism; determinism is compatible with "human freedom and moral responsibility," and Augustine rejects this.

Augustine sees human beings having metaphysical freedom: "the freedom to make decisions and control what to choose with any determination that is outside one's control." He points out that with out our metaphysical freedom we would be end up living in a boring and planned world. Our metaphysical freedom exercises the choices that causes evil and causes of genuine good. Which will go back to where he says that we are solely responsible for our actions, whether it is the act of evil or the act of goodwill.

Our surroundings and society

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Approximate Word count = 577
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Philosophy 2

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