St Augustine
Saint Augustine, who lived in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, created a very interesting perspective on the notion of evil. Augustine first views of evil followed the doctrine of the Manichaen Dualists'. Their idea was that there were two omnipotent forces, good and evil, constantly fighting. Both forces, according to the Manichaen Dualists', were of equal power. Augustine later rejected this idea and developed his own theory on the nature of evil. Saint Augustine's view concerning evil is, simply put the privation of good. Augustine believes that evil is not a separate force, but a lack of good. This view is contradictory to the Manichaen view. Augustine does not view evil even as a substance, but as a void. This void, sort of like the "Nothing" in the Never Ending Story, takes over the being that it infects. A being that used to contain good becomes empty as evil corrupts it. Augustine believes that all beings were created good and all beings have the potential to become corrupted. Even if a being is partially corrupted the being still only consists of good, since evil, in and of itself, does not truly exist; it is only the lack of good. Beings do possess free will and their goodness may fluctuate: "But
because they are not, like their Creator, supremely and unchangeably good, their good may be diminished and increased." (Cahn, 177) Saint Augustine states that "There can be no evil where there is no good..." (Cahn, 177) Augustine sees evil as a dependent, not an independent. Evil must have good to exist. Not only is evil a void, it is an ontological parasite, needing a host to survive. The host is the being, or the good, since both exist within one another. Augustine also points out that nothing is totally evil because it would cease to exist. If a being were to be completely consumed by evil, there would be no good left within the being. Since some good must exist for there to be being or existence, a totally corrupt being cannot exist. When there is no being there is no good and with out good, there can be no evil. Although it may seem like a contradiction, everything that is evil is good. Augustine proves this claim by showing that evil is just an imperfect good. As stated before, evil is not a substance, it is just a void. An analogy would be, good/being is like a full glass of water. When the glass is full, it is completely good, without corruption/evil. Good or being is represented by the water and the physical body is the glass. As the glass becomes empty, it becomes less good. Just like being, the glass does not become filled with any other substance as it becomes empty. When the water is gone, good is gone and in turn evil is gone because there is nothing left, but an empty space and a glass. Since the body cannot live without being, it will also cease to exist. Using this logic, Augustine shows that an "evil man is an evil good." (Cahn, 177) the previous statement claims that evil is pa
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Approximate Word count = 1164
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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