William Mann On Free Will Analysis

Eileen MylesStewart

Survey of Philosophical Thoughts

Professor James Moore

June 13, 2015

Enchiridion and “On Free Will”.

In William E. Mann’s article entitled “On Free Will”, is a dialogue between Augustine and Evodius great philosophers who were involved in the Stoicism. Stoicism over the centuries underwent different changes and during the process of change became less of a philosophy, but a guide to the right conduct. Early Stoics placed great effort on logic, physics and ethics. The Stoic ethical teaching was based upon two principles already developed in their physics; first, that the universe is governed by absolute law, which admits of no exceptions; and second, that the essential nature of humans is reason.

Epictetus was born sometime

354-430) was born in the North African town of Thagaste. He attended Carthage in 370 to receive preparation for a career in law. While attending Carthage, Augustine was introduced to Manichaeism. He became attracted to Manichaeism do to the swift action taken to solve the problem of evil. Augustine studied Manicheism for nine years, but his disenchantment with Manichaeism had of evil, cause him to settle for skepticism. He later was convinced that his reservation about Christianity was ill founded. In 386 Augustine converted to Christianity and was baptized in the city of Hippo. He later became the bishop of Hippo until his death in

Natural evils are evils that occur as the result of natural processes while moral evils are freely inflicted upon humankind by humankind. Book 1 begins with Evodius asking Augustine if God is the author of the evil deeds in which occur Augustine replies, “Then he rewards the good and punishes the wicked”. He is the author of those evil occurrences which befall men as punishments; but as God is good, he is not the author of the evil deeds which wicked men commit”. (pg. 374) Evodius asks then “who is the author of such evil deeds”? And Augustine replies that every man is the author of his own evil deeds, and must commit them voluntarily, otherwise the punishment bestowed upon them by God would be unjust, and thus unbecoming of a just God. The answer left Evodius thinking if men could have been taught to do evil by malicious agent. In Augustine argument, he says could not, “for teaching imparts only knowledge, which is good; or even if some knowledge were somehow bad, the teaching of it would require the use of intelligence, which is wholly good, and thus such knowledge could not be learned”. This made Evodius to ask why men do evil things, if our facilities are only capable of learning to do good things, and Augustine again