Augustine on human nature

Question 1

What are the two extreme opposites of human nature

Answer 1

Cold blooded murderer; selfless priests

• all humans have the potential to be both

Question 2

Rousseau on human nature

Answer 2

humans are generous and act differently when the situation asks
‘man is born free and everywhere he is in chains’

Question 3

Hobbes on human nature

Answer 3

Humans are brutish and selfish - purpose is to conquer brutal nature and establish fair and just societies

Question 4

Augustine

Answer 4

Big influence on Western Philosophy

• honest about personal experience
• book ‘confessions’

Question 5

Manicheism

Answer 5

• dualists - evil cause by a dark lower power
• world is a battlefield between light and darkness and body is a particle of light entrapped within the human body
• liberate soul by resisting material cravings - prayer and abstinence
• links to Elect

Question 6

Why did Augustine reject Manicheism

Answer 6

dissatisfied with the lack of explanations for the universes as there was no science
- superstition

Question 7

Platonism

Answer 7

Differed from Plato - human minds capable of contemplating the end by ascending up the levels of reality
Soul + body - harmony but soul cannot control the body
- once separated wisdom and happiness are achieved

Question 8

What did Platonism lead Augustine to believe

Answer 8

Evil is not a separate power but an absence of good however still felt an inner conflict what intellect alone couldn’t fix

Question 9

Conversion to Christianity

Answer 9

read OT at symbolic level removed contradictions in the Bible
- wisdom can come from Gods grace in Jesus

Question 10

Plegians

Answer 10

monk who did not believe original sin caused universal guilt in which only God can remove

• humans sufficient will to divorce it
• even if Adam had not sinned would’ve died
• Adams sin only harmed himself not the whole human race
• Children born in an Antelpasarian state
• human race does not die in Adams sin/ rise again in Christ
• even before Christ some men lived without sin

Question 11

How did Augustine oppose the Plegians

Answer 11

seminal presence - can only alleviate sin from Gods grace as incapable of choosing good or following God alone

Question 12

Human will before the fall

Answer 12

Genesis 1-3 accounts of creation

• until fall harmony was expressed in obedience of Adam and eve to God and duties
• also harmony of body will and reason

Question 13

What is the will as love

Answer 13

Will - God- given created from nothing with humans - ability to choose/reject God - determines the kind of person

• Driven by Cupidas and Cartias, both necessary elements of will
• To love our neighbour must love ourselves first leading to a love of God

Question 14

Augustine on sex and friendship before the fall

Answer 14

Adam and Eve married as friends

• equally participated in a friendship with God
• commanded to be fruitful - reproduction part of friendship

Sex is secondary to friendship and sex would occur without lust - now harder to control bodily desires
- friendship only possible through love and Christ

Question 15

Human nature after the fall

Answer 15

• pride - reject perfect relationship with the world and God
• sinned out of desire to belike God
• pride means harmony is gone and Cupidas is separate from Cartias

Idea came from:
Lucifer (fallen angel) jealous of pre-fallen state and plants idea of disobedience in Eves’ mind
- God may have seen but result is entirely free will
- will precedes the evil of act and pride is the mother of all vices
- body is not evil but the will - unable to control bodily desires

Question 16

Divided will

Answer 16

Soul divided

- rational to determine good but damage in the fall means will is not strong enough to overcome bodily desires

Question 17

St Paul Romans

Answer 17

“For I do not do what I want, but I do the thing I hate”

Question 18

Weakness of the will

Answer 18

Akrasia

Question 19

Aristotle and Plato on the will

Answer 19

If lie in bed for a few more minuities is it weakness of the will or just a preference

Question 20

Concupiscence

Answer 20

• tendency to sin or be swayed
• fallen state man cant control libido and desiring parts of the soul dominated by Concusipence
• body not evil as created by good God = fault of weak will
• jealousy and betrayal = friendship - so heavily distracted from God

Question 21

Augustine on Original sin

Answer 21

Post-antelapsarian world - sin - rebellion of will
Lack of controls over sexual desires and organs - Fall
Presence of Concusipence - lack of rational soul

Sin - ontological condition of human condition
- no one morally good no matter how virtuous they may seem

Question 22

What is double death

Answer 22

First death by Adams rebellion; mortality as Gods punishment

Question 23

What is transmission of sin

Answer 23

First act of sin - chain of disasters - Adam’s children rebellious like him in the same way a tree bears rotten fruit
- every sexual act tainted and every human born into sin

Question 24

Free will

Answer 24

Sin whether want too or not - even Chaste life is not enough to escape Concusipence and encouraged marriage to abstain from sex after having children

Question 25

Predestination

Answer 25

Only God knows who is desiring of Gods grace and gift of Heaven - OPTOMISTIC
- some will be saved

Question 26

Fall as part of a spiritual journey

Answer 26

Fall; renewal and redemption - positive symbols of spiritual life/ each persons spiritual journey
Genesis 1-3 - imaginative story about moment we lose our innocence and engage with the realities of life
- phase where people act rebelliously

Question 27

How do Jews view the Fall

Answer 27

Torah - human journey to perfection

Question 28

Modern Christians on the fall

Answer 28

fall does not allow human moral and spiritual development

life - not biological but a human body and soul journey

Question 29

Dawkins on Original sin

Answer 29

Dawkins - contradictory to evolutionary biology as well as absurd and dangerous

1) absurd to imagine corruption of billions of people rest on two people
- evolution = humans emerged from less sophisticated animals without consciousness to make decisions to rebel - Adam and Eve absurd
2) Symbolic accounts does not excuse obbsession with guilt; sin; repressed sexuality
3) Idea God - restore humans by killing Jesus on the Christ - sadomasochistic and irrational

Question 30

Humanitarian principle

Answer 30

Steve Pinker
- religion responsible for violence; suffering and debasement of humanity

Humans get on better when taken into account others interests - respect each other - don’t need faith but autonomous rational negotiation

Since - West declined in capital punishment; use of torture; wars; tyrants

Question 31

Niebuhr response to Humanitarian principle

Answer 31

Failure to understand sin leads to colossal mistakes in society
- rationalism of West failed

rejecting sin - humans have failed to realise that no action can entirely be good and cause great evil and suffering

• reason is not enough to bring about just society
• understand through God

Question 32

Criticisms on sex

Answer 32

Augustine - feel guilty
Church role of controlling sex through marriage and teaching people to repent from sexual impulses

Freud - natural part of human development - defining factor of relationship