...University of Sharjah International Relations Political Theory Ideas on States and Justice in the thought of Augustine and Rousseau Essay Assignment By: May Ramez Mahrat Supervised by: Dr. Jeremy Kleidosty Arguments and philosophical explanations for what justifies power and states, inspired by the European Enlightenment thought, has headed closer toward reasoning and further from faith. The thought of Rousseau and Saint Augustine is a clear representation of the two poles of reason and faith in political thought. Rousseau, outlining the basis of his social contract on the natural goodness of human beings and putting sovereignty in the hand s of people, differs widely from Augustine who addresses the state as an “essential evil” put to discipline men who are sinners by nature. The political arguments of these two philosophers, who lived in two different ages, represent a different kind of Enlightenment for the both ages that they lived in. This essay will discuss Rousseau’s and Augustine’s regards to state, justice and property and will examine the effects of their thoughts on modern politics. Augustine and Rousseau in Comparison Wrapping his political and social beliefs with virtuous, deist and theological Christian discourse, Augustine, the Christian bishop, presents a leap in the Western thought at a time close to the beginning of the middle ages. His political views in his writings are interpreted differently by various scholars as he rarely expresses direct...
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...Romans 5:12 Paul makes it known that sin entered through Adam and then spread to all of humanity. It is based on Paul’s writing that Saint Augustine expanded his theory on the notion of original sin and its relationship with the human free will. This essay will discuss these two views concerning original sin and free will, by first providing a brief description of Augustine of Hippo and his origins. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO : Augustine of Hippo or Saint Augustine ( 354- 430) bishop of Hippo, was one of the most important figures in the development of Christianity.. However this influential person was not born a Christian. As a young man, Augustine pursued a secular career as a teacher of rhetoric and philosophy while living a dissolute lifestyle. For nine years he was a follower of Manichaeism. In Milan he studied Neoplatonism and his conversion to Christianity took place in 386. As a theologian, he was called to write against the many heresies of the period Manichaeanism, Donatism, and Pelagianism, and in so doing he defined the shape of orthodox doctrine. ORIGINAL SIN AND FREE WILL “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. this I keep on doing” Roman 7:19 In this quote , Pau shows that mankind can tell the difference between wright and wrong. However, despite our intellect something influences us to chose evil. This influence is referred as “original sin”. It’s the original sin in humanity that affects free will, choices, feelings, knowledge...
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...social class, educational opportunities, health care, employment, etc. Simple allegory or one-for-one representations often fall woefully short in conveying the complexities surrounding and permeating social problems. In his essay “On Fairy Stories,” J.R.R. Tolkien displays his displeasure over the simple allegory and advocates for a richer development of a secondary world within a novel full or nuance (70-71). The short novel simply does not allow for the intricate web of variables to take shape because fewer characters can be developed. Caroline Levine cultivates this concept further in her analysis of Dickens’s complex narrative network in Bleak House. She reinforces Tolkien’s assertion that convincing secondary worlds must achieve a level of complexity to avoid the pitfalls of simple allegory by comparing narrative network films to novels (520). Films simply do not allow for the complexities of interconnected variables to take shape much like the short novel. The form of the novel cannot fully commentate on social problems without creating a network of characters interwoven in plot and setting to define specific societal evils and provide possible...
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...CHRISTIANITY I CHHI 520 Professor John M. Landers 09 May 2014 ABSTRACT This paper will examine Augustine’s response to the doctrinal challenges presented in the heresy of Pelagianism concerning grace and original sin. Augustine’s writings against Pelagius serve as our primary source for understanding his response. It is expected to find that Augustine responded in a biblically orthodox manner showing the true nature of man while defending the doctrines of grace and original sin. CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii Pelagianism 1 THE BACKGROUND OF PELAGIUS 2 THE WRITINGS OF PELAGIUS 3 THE TEACHINGS OF PELAGIUS 6 AUGUSTINE 7 AUGUSTINE’S BACKGROUND 7 ORIGINAL SIN 8 TRANSMISSION OF SIN 9 THE GRACE OF GOD 10 CONCLUSION 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 11 Pelagianism The Heresy of Pelagianism began in the fifth-century and was named after the British monk Pelagius. He is well known even today for his views on original sin and freedom of the will. A definition provided by William Shed in his work Dogmatic Theology states that, “Pelagius affirmed the freedom of the will, which for him meant that a person always has the ability to choose good as well as evil. That is, for Pelagius the power of contrary choice is essential to free moral agency. According to Pelagius, a person is always ‘able to sin and able not to sin’ (posse peccare et posse non peccare). Naturally, such a view of freedom carries implications for the doctrine of original sin. Pelagius denied that human beings derive a corrupt nature...
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...Aquinas and Augustine Essay Individuals have their personal view of human nature and the ability to know “the good” and do “the good.” Augustine and Aquinas have their philosophy on human nature and the ability to know “the good” and do “the good.” Human nature is how we perceive the life of a human being and the characteristics that” make up” an individual. The ability to do well and know good depends on the individual and the goodness of God. Thomas Aquinas was one of the most important world Christian theologians that lived in the middle ages. He created his philosophy of human nature. Within his perception of human nature, he considered the true perception of human nature. In Aquinas’s Summa Theologian, he expresses what it’s like to be human or the essential features. Based on his views he used characters of human being to define humans. Character exist in all human beings. According to Aquinas, to be a human being has physical and mental unit factors. This means that to be human there must be a body and soul. A human is not made up of more of each factor, it is equally united to form a human being based on Aquinas perception. Soul is considered to be the principle of life in a human being. All humans have a soul and a body but none are alike. Although some of them are similar. Before Aquinas made his perception of human nature, he took in consideration Aristotelian conception of souls. This means that Aquinas considers a soul to be “the first principle of life in...
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...RST3709 Assignment 1 Write an essay on the God of the philosophers. Who or what is God according to traditional Classical philosophy? Refer in your answer specifically to Plato and Aristotle’s objective idea of God. Also refer to Augustine’s response to Classical philosophy. Conclude your essay with your own critical assessment. Do you agree or disagree with the philosophers? Use Chapter 4 of your prescribed textbook (‘The God of the Philosophers’) in order to answer the question. Contents 1. Brief summary of the God of the philosophers 2. The traditional God and gods 3. Plato and Aristotle’s objective ideas of God 4. Conclusion 5. References 1. Brief summary of the God of the Philosopher: In the book ‘God: A guide for the perplexed’ Keith Ward goes into fascinating debate and detail of ancient philosopher, their writings and the way the world understood them. Each philosopher mentioned in Chapter 4; Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Augustine had their own image and debate on what the godswere and how they perceived them and how they believed they came to be and what they are capable of. Plato, when learning about the Greek gods, never understood why they were there or where they came from. He believed that good was the only essence that mattered in all the beliefs and religions and ways of life. He believed in a god that was faultlessin everything he did and that is why the universe was created. (Ward 2002: 145) Socrates on the other hand...
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...An Essay about the Problem of Evil The problem of evil is a question that inevitably arises as people begin to argue the existence of a God, who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omni-benevolent when the world is filled with undesirable state of affairs (evil). Atheistic proponents, in particular, argue that a perfect God would not be able to withstand such existence of evil. Therefore, they contend that God could not possibly exist. The responses against the problem of evil are generally divided as theodicies or defenses. While defenses only aim to prove that it is logical for God and evil to exist together, theodicies have a higher intention of finding a plausible justification of the existence of evil to support the premise that God is ultimately...
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...way they do due to the reason that all things and people are under the control of the logos, or God, contradictory to what Epicurus believed. Plotinus thought that the true unchanging reality is God. He developed a theory about God as the source of all things as that to which people must return. According to him, god is indescribable, for this reason, God is not material, is not finite and is inseparable. Plotinus, similar to Heraclitus views that God as the one, which God is absolute unity that God does not change. Augustine was not concerned on the speculations regarding the existence of God. He characterized God as both eternal and true, since God is truth, he is in some sense within us, but since he is also eternal, he also surpasses us. To Augustine, he founds it easier to describe what God is not that what he is just like Plotinus. For Augustine, God is the highest being for he interpreted the scriptural for God given to Moses as “ I am that I am” thus, Augustine interprets God being itself. As the highest being, God is the perfect being which means that he is self- existent, immutable and eternal. Now for the Philosophers of the Early Middle Ages, Pseudo- Dionysus On the knowledge of God in two ways; A positive way and a negative way. The only positive effect of this notion is knowing what God is not like. Because he is not an object and he is beyond knowable. Erigena’s the division of nature which by nature he meant “everything there is” which includes both God and nature...
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...this is seen as the most important function as it decides between right and wrong, the second is that it has a imperative functions; that is it commands and the third is that it has a reflective function; that is that it reflects on former decisions and considers the consequences of actions. However the question raised within this essay is whether our conscience comes from the voice of God within us, therefore is it acquired from God and is the result of an internal influence or is it required as a result of environmental factors, therefore is formed from an external influence whether this is from our parents or our own life experiences. Within this essay I shall discuss the theories in favour of the conscience being the voice of God within us (focussing on Butler, Augustine and Newman), and those that instead propose that it is acquired from other sources whether this is through our reason (Aquinas) or in our early childhood (psychologists approaches), in order to draw a conclusion on whether our conscience is the voice of God within us. One scholar who stated that the conscience was the voice of God speaking to us from within was St Augustine (334-430). He saw it as the law of God within our hearts, and stated that therefore it cannot be questioned and stated that it allows us to have an innate capacity to...
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...AS Philosophy & Ethics Course Handbook 2013 to 2014 [pic] OCR AS Level Religious Studies (H172) http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/type/gce/hss/rs/index.aspx OCR AS Level Religious Studies (H172) You are studying Philosophy of Religion and Religious Ethics and will be awarded an OCR AS Level in Religious Studies. The modules and their weightings are: |AS: |Unit Code |Unit Title |% of AS |(% of A Level) | | |G571 |AS Philosophy of Religion |50% |(25%) | | |G572 |AS Religious Ethics |50% |(25%) | If you decide to study for the full A Level you will have to study the following modules at A2: |A2: |Unit Code |Unit Title |(% of A Level) | | |G581 |A2 Philosophy of Religion |(25%) | | |G582 |A2 Religious Ethics |(25%) | Grading | ...
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...earth that will last one thousand years. Those who hold this view tend to view Scripture in a more figurative way than a literal way. They believe the thousand year reign of Christ is symbolic of the church age between the resurrection of Christ and His return. Most amillennialists believe that a spiritual form of the Kingdom of God is present now. Amillennialism reject the idea of a rapture. They believe good and evil will increase in the world as God’s Kingdom parallels the kingdom of Satan. They believe Satan is bound but yet evil increases. They believe when Christ returns the end of the world will occur with a general resurrection and a judgment of all people. They believe Christ will never reign on earth in a literal way but the Kingdom of God exists on earth in the heart of believers. It was under Augustine of Hippo that the Catholic Church started accepting an amillenial view of the return of Christ. We know that Augustine was heavily influenced by Greek thought in developing a lot of his theology and although Augustine is considered a great theologian by the Catholic Church he is responsible for a large amount of the false teaching in...
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...to create logical reasoning that is supported by sources and give his claims more credibility. He supports his logical reasoning that he is allowed to break some laws because laws are unjust and just. He uses the definition of unjust and just laws by Christian philosophers. Therefore he can break the unjust laws because they are laws that are “out of harmony with the moral law (or the law of God as mentioned in the previous sentence).” He, also, refutes the logic used in “A Call for Unity”. They say that because the action of peaceful protest precipitates violence it should be condemned. He asks, “Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?” He is appealing to the logical reasoning of the reader and also rejecting the logical appeals of his...
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...Leipzig. For ten years he served as chair of classical philology at Basel in Switzerland. My focus is going to be on his writing, Beyond Good and Evil. It is important to note for the analysis of this book that Nietzsche came from a materialist, or atheist background. In Beyond Good and Evil, the ethical model he promotes is one that is driven by power. The other writing I will look at is Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from Birmingham Jail. Like Nietzsche, King was also very sophisticated....
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...What is Love? A Conceptual Analysis of "Love", focusing on the Love Theories of Plato, St. Augustine and Freud Nico Nuyens GRIPh Working Papers No. 0901 This paper can be downloaded without charge from the GRIPh Working Paper Series website: http//www.rug.nl/filosofie/GRIPh/workingpapers What is love? A Conceptual Analysis of “Love”, focusing on the Love Theories of Plato, St. Augustine and Freud CONTENTS INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 1. FORMAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE............................................................................... 3 2. SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF LOVE........................................................................... 6 3. HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE....................................................................... 9 3.1 ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY: PLATO ..................................................................... 11 3.2 CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY: SAINT AUGUSTINE............................................................ 18 3.3 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: FREUD ................................................................................. 27 4. COMPARATIVE EVALUATION............................................................................ 37 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................. 40 REFERENCES....................................................................
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... This has been accompanied by a massive population increase, tripling in the twentieth century alone[3]. Human pressure on nature has never been so great. Such pressure has resulted in 'environmental issues', ranging from global warming and eutrophication, to the depletion of natural resources and an increase in the number of landfill sites. A distinction must be drawn between 'anthropogenically created’ environmental issues, and 'natural' ones. The extinction of most of the dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago was not caused by man, but rather an entirely natural disaster, perhaps a meteor or extreme tectonic activity. It is difficult to apply any man-made ethic to situations that are not man-made, so for the purpose of this essay, 'environmental issues' will be taken to be current issues actively cause by human beings. During the last few decades, many thinkers from different disciplines have been searching for a new ethic to confront environmental issues with - an 'environmental ethic'. Whether religious or secular in nature, this must be able to define the environment and the proper relationship that should exist between human beings and the natural world. The stance that one takes concerning environmental issues, whether from a secular or religious position, is firstly affected by what they consider to be 'rights'. Almost everybody agrees that humans have rights, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drawn up by the General Assembly of...
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