Augustine's Idea of Freedom

Countless authors wrote about the topic of freedom. Some about freedom from certain obstacles in life, others spoke of freedom of action - the ability to do what we want to do. Aristotle saw freedom as the ability to choose our actions. But we must take responsibility for these actions. He believes choices are only free when they are caused by us alone, our conscious decisions, and not by some external force. These choices are …

…as more conservative and steadfast than that of Augustine himself. Augustine uses the Neoplatonic notion of creation to solve the problem of natural evil. He argues that if God made everything good, evil is the absence of good. Thus God is not the creator of evil, because there is no evil. For this reason there's no question of how God and evil can exist in the same world. Bibliography: Wall, T. 2005. On Human Nature. USA