The question of evil, which has been studied by philosophers for centuries, can find an answer in the ability of man to choose. Evil can take different forms including pain, suffering, malice and ill-intentioned actions towards oneself and others. Some people assure that their actions are never intended towards evil, but they are held responsible for their actions regardless of their intentions. This happens due to one’s human desire for goodness which makes one find a way to deal with evil around them. How is it, however, that one might see an individual willfully doing evil, even if it is not intended?
Looking into the account of evil given by Augustine of Hippo a theory can be found. In the Confessions, he holds that the source of evil is the free choice of the will (Confessions: Book 7, III). There is, of course, a natural human impulse to try to find reasons for the different occurrences of evil, to identify the individuals responsible for men’s suffering of evil and to hold them accountable if possible. Augustine examined the cause of human suffering evil and thought it was a result of God’s just judgment after they use their free choice of the will.
He refers to instances where acts are done without an intention of evil or being purposely at fault, but having to confront repercussions which he saw as God’s just punishment for the actions performed (Confessions: Book 7, III). In discerning the cause of suffering and evil, Augustine became aware that he had a will, as much as he had a life, which made him do certain things and not do others. He accepted that, when he chose to act a certain way, it was by his own volition and not pressed by anyone or anything. This for him was the source of sin and evil.
In his quest to comprehend how this evil sprang from us, Augustine pondered the question of where this evil came from, considering that in his view, man was created ‘good’ (Confessions: Book 7, V). In On Free Choice of the Will Augustine makes his friend Evodius aware of what he calls a good will. This good will is the will by which one seeks to live rightly and honorably and to come to the highest wisdom (On Free Choice of the Will: Book I, XII-83). Augustine chastises his friend Evodius for not knowing if he wants to know whether or not he has a will. On Free Choice of the Will: Book I, XII-82). A common goal in every single person is to live an honorable life and to live rightly; the means by which one obtains this honorable and right life are what differ between men and determines whether or not they have a good will. Augustine makes clear with Evodius that unless men’s will is to have knowledge and to reach a state of wisdom, then there is no point in addressing the question of will, for there is no intention to be wise or virtuous.
The good will is what drives people to do what is right and just, and failure to adhere to it with reason will bring about instances of a disgraceful and unhappy life. Augustine argues that those who love this good will and hold it in high regards will show it by doing the will itself (On Free Choice of the Will: Book I, XIII-90). Therefore, it can be said that it is by the will that a happy life is achieved, since, as previously established, the good will bring us to an honorable and righteous way of living. When evil is identified in its various forms, there are several factors that lead men to arrive at the evil outcome at hand.
Humans have a tendency always to lay the blame on something or someone other than themselves. In discerning the free choice of the will, Augustine came to the realization that whatever he did, it was done because he willed it so, not others pressing on him (Confessions: Book 7, III). He focused on that as the place where his sin (evil) lay. His affirmation reveals how the will is the ultimate source for our actions. Aside from what kind of action these might be in terms of their nature, the free choice of will is what brings feelings, emotions, and desires to reality.
When the choices made are not in accordance with the best interest of others or the individual in order to live rightly, that is when evil springs forth and becomes real. No matter how much one regrets these actions afterwards, or how the intentions were not those of evil doing, the action of it in itself becomes the choice of the will because it has been done and executed. From this perspective, any altering factor in our choice-making abilities is absolved from any responsibility since -regardless of the circumstance, no one can be forced to do something that he does not will to do.
An action requires an order from the mind, and the action takes place because the mind wills it to happen due to the free choice of the will. The mind can will to not do evil, or good, if it so wishes, which will stop the will itself from bringing it to execution. Augustine says that the mind “commands itself to will; it would not give the command unless it willed” (Confessions: Book 8, IX). For this to be so, one must be trained to withstand the pressures of emotion and fear by striving to be virtuous. Augustine explains this with the example of lustful feelings in a man, and questions whether one could be forced to fall into lust.
Expressed in simple terms, Augustine holds that, when attacked with evil desires the virtues can overcome the vices with such strength that the vice cannot will a mind to succumb to it (On Free Choice of the Will: Book 1, X, 72). A virtuous person, by merits of reason and his acquired wisdom, will not use his choice of the will in an improper manner that would be seen as evil. What is one to say about those who do possess the ability to reason, who are seemingly wise and virtuous, but in their behavior tend to go astray and do evil things? What is to be said then of their mind and their will?
They have a free choice of the will, but apparently they do not use the wisdom and reasoning that they have to avoid doing evil. Augustine addresses this issue in his Confessions by establishing a difference between the mind’s willing the body to act, which the body obeys without hesitation, and the mind willing itself to will, during which it often finds resistance. In his desire to follow the norms of Christianity, Augustine felt held back by something that would not allow him to act the way he knew he should act. He argued that the mind sometimes it finds in itself an opposing force that does not let it fully yield to the first command. The mind I say commands itself to will […] yet it does not do what it commands. The trouble is that it does not totally will […] it commands in so far as it wills” (Confessions: Book 8, IX). Augustine was a wise and virtuous man, considered as such even to this day, yet he struggled to willfully act towards what he knew to be the best path. In many cases it can be argued that failure to do the good is also evil and Augustine suggests that when the will does not obey the mind’s command to will, it is because there is a severing between the mind willing and the actual desire or ability to do.
This distinction is made in the instances when the mind’s wills the body to do something but the body, due to different physical factors, cannot accomplish the order of the mind’s determining how sometimes “the will to do them was not at all the same thing as the power to do them” (Confessions: Book 8, IX). The manifestation of the will is expressed in the action in accord to that which the mind wills. Seeing as the will is not executed as the mind willed it to, it is clear that the will is resisting itself to obey.
This is a struggle Augustine found that is often present in the human soul due to it being “weighted down by custom that it cannot wholly rise [up] even with the support of truth” (Confessions: Book 8, IX). The constant battle men face is the willing away of things that have become habitual in his life. When someone living a promiscuous life for a certain period of time, as was the case of Augustine, decides to abandon this evil moral behavior, his will is set at not falling again into this habit with a zealous commitment and passion.
However, Augustine argues that there will be a struggle between the will pressed by custom and the will to leave this behavior which, in response, it is what makes the mind not fully will itself to obey its own command (Confessions: Book 8, IX). The battle of the will comes from its freedom to choose one thing rather than another, often ruled by desires of pleasure or comfort which bring about evildoings. Some might argue that the actions or choices themselves might not be of an evil nature, but the effects they have are, thus turning the choice made into a evil one.
This occurs due to the presence of two wills, according to Augustine, where “what is lacking to the one [will] is present in the other” (Confessions: Book 8, IX). Political philosopher Hannah Arendt, in studying the writings of Augustine mentions in her book Willing how this split of the will is not between the mind and the will but rather in the will itself (94). As understood from her studies, the will according to Augustine is not entire, for it needs to command itself to will, as he declares, “If the will were so in its fullness, it would not command itself to will, for it would already will” (Confessions: Book 8, IX).
Arendt explains how in the will there will always be these two wills opposing each other in a conflict that makes the will oppose itself when it commands itself to will, even for wills that are good (Willing, 95). It is important to clarify that the two wills are not different entities, but rather contrary motions of one power within the mind. This conflict requires that the will makes a free choice between them. An individual can take one course or the other, or even choose not to act at all. The evidence hen for claiming that the will is free in its choices comes from personal experience, and the person who is arguing in favor of the freedom of the will can ask others to consult their own experience. In commenting on Augustine’s views, Arendt holds that the will is a mental exchange for it addresses itself to itself which brings forth a counter-will in order to have a balance in the mind. Arendt talks of how “a contest is possible only between equals […] without a counter-will could no longer be a will properly speaking” (Willing, 95).
Humans are said to have freedom of will is because none of these inclinations force the person to act. Arendt is referring to how in order to have free choice of the will, there needs to be an opposing force to give it options to choose from. If there is no conflict in the will, there would be no need for a will since there is nothing to choose from. As Augustine came to understand, the free choice of the will, in its many different characteristics and forms, when wrongly used, can be seen as a “swerving of the will which is turned to lower things” (Confessions: Book 7, XVI) in light of iniquity sin or evil.
The resistance of one’s free choice of the will to act in an honest, moral and virtuous way will bring evil, suffering and pain to society. Many could argue that they make efforts in life to avoid evil in choosing the good, but the question concerning the existence of evil still remains. Until there is a universal commitment to using the free choice of will with wisdom in search for virtue, evil will still be lurking in the world, and there is no one to blame but oneself.
