Augustine Flashcards

1
Q

Alturism Vs. Egoism

A

Altruism
Selfless concern for the well-being of others.

Egoism
Selfish. Prioritising yourself and your own needs over others.

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2
Q

What is the Fall

A

Genesis
- Eve eating the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then A+E being expelled from Garden of Eden

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3
Q

What is Akrasia?

A

Weakness of will
- a moral paradox where we know something is not in our best interest, but do it anyway.

Plato - no Akrasia, simply use reason to wight up short + long-term pleasure gained
Aristotle - we don’t know all the facts, try to follow what is best ignorance leads us astray.

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4
Q

Name some Influences on Augustine?

A
  • His mother Monica
  • ‘wild’ youth + struggles with sexual urges
  • Relationship +child with concubine (mistress) + forced to leave her
  • Manichaeism - God of light, lower soul craves pleasures of material world, release found in prayer and abstinence from luxuries
  • St. Ambrose
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5
Q

How was the world Pre-Fall

A
  • Humans in Harmony with God
  • Obedience to God
  • Human body, will and reason harmony with each other
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6
Q

What was Adam + Eve’s relationship like Pre-Fall?

A
  • Primarily friends
  • Sex as secondary - rational act based on love and to reproduce
  • Had caritas (divine love) which changes to cupiditas (selfish love)
  • Sex driven by lust
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7
Q

How did Male + Female roles change due to Fall

A
  • God given hierarchy, women subordinate to man - but both in image of God
    –> not less valuable like women as a child, need parents control
    –> fall leads to subversion of heirarchy
  • Women as helper to man + child
  • Post-Fall women’s subordination increases as punishment
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8
Q

Cupiditas Vs Caritas

A

Cupiditas = selfish love
Caritas = divine love

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9
Q

Consequences of the Fall (5)

A
  • Mall domination –> as eve led man to sin
  • Cupiditas love –> selfish love, desire overrules reason
  • Disruption of harmony between God + man
  • Soul became divided
  • Akrasia - weakness of will
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10
Q

Explain Original Sin

A
  • Caused by Fall
  • Tainting of humanity
  • Every human has it , passed through sex as tainted by concupiscence
  • Causes us to go against God; selfish, lack of free will, corruption.
  • Removed by Jesus death + resurrection
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11
Q

Augustines views on Free Will

A
  • Human will is free but not strong
  • Should chained down by sin
    –> cannot resist concupiscence
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12
Q

What is Concupiscence?

A

Lust, uncontrollable desires; libido, food, power
- Caused by Fall
- Body rebelling against mind

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13
Q

What is GRACE to Augustine?

A
  • only way to overcome sin + heal damaged relationship with God
  • Undeserved gift from God
  • Living a good life / reason is not enough to reach eudaemonia - need grace
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14
Q

Who are the Wider Scholars we can use to critique Augustine? (7)

A

Dawkins
–> Augustine has unhealthy obsession with guilt, sin and repressed sexuality
–> Redemption through Jesus death is irrational
–> Augustine views are damaging

Steven Pinker
–> Christianity responsible for violence and suffering
–> Should be replaced by Humanitarian Principles e..g. rational people taking account of others interests
–> can decrease; torture, wars, abuse of women

Freud
–> Agree’s humans shaped by history, environment and that libido is central to development
–> Rejects idea of Fall
–> Remedy for guilt through psychoanalysis not GRACE

Satre
–> No Original Sin
–> Sin is failure to live own authentic life

Kant
–> Human Nature essentially good
–> Salvation achieved through following reason

Rousseau
–> Optimistic of Human Nature
–> “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” - Society + industrialisation cause of immorality

Quakers
–> Divine light within each person

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15
Q

Who are the Wider Scholars to support Augustine? (2)

A
  • Hobbes - Human Nature immoral
    –> Human Nature as selfish, “poor, nasty, brutish and short”
  • Niebuhr
    –> Rationalism/ post-Enlightenment has failed
    –> led to increased sin, war, poverty and cruelty
    –> Human Responsibility has been corrupted
    –> Humans need to come into a proper relationship with God
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16
Q

What are the Weaknesses of Augustine?

A
  • A+E not perfection
    –> Darwinism - people evolved over time - cant be perfection
  • Human Nature not Immoral
    –> Quakers (divine light) , Kant (reason), Rousseau (State of Nature), Locke (blank slate - tabula rosa)
  • Augustines views are damaging
    –> Pinker (causes war, abuse of women)
    –> Dawkins (unhealthy obsession with guilt, violence and repressed sexuality)
  • Grace not the answer to immorality
    –> Kant (reason)
    –> Freud (psychoanalysis)
    –> Rousseau (State of Nature)
    –> Hobbes (powerful State - Social contract)
17
Q

Strengths of Augustine

A
  • Biblical basis
    –> Genesis
  • Rationalism creates more evil
    –> Niebuhr
    –> Post-enlightenment rationalism failed - war, famine, cruelty - need to come back to God

Human Nature is immoral
–> Hobbes
–> Niebuhr

18
Q

What is the State of Nature

A

State of nature - A hypothetical life and state of being were people are free to act on basic urges and desires. Life before society.