Freely Loving the Highest Good Essay -- Analysis, Augustines View

One of the inquiries that is often raised in the topic of the will is the account of humans not loving and twist away from the highest good. By this, I mean that there is a relation between the freedom of the will and human beings not having a rightly request venerate, that is, to love the wrong thing. According to Augustines philosophy, the chain of iniquity is self-forged by our divided will, also referred to as the divided house. In Book XII of metropolis of God Augustine declares it pointless to look for the cause of the evil will. For the cause, he argues, is deficient, not efficient. In supporting Augustines view, I will provide my own examples and arguments in order to strengthen his claims. Before I nominate expostulate on the issues of the divided will, and the reward for freely willing to love the highest good, I will justify what Augustine means by deficient as opposed to efficient cause as the foundation of the divided house. Deficient Cause vs. Efficient Cause lot s times, actions are analyzed by rational explanation or causal explanation. Rational explanation attempts to construe an action by the aims a person competency presently have in his mind. Causal explanation attempts to find the cause for that particular action. Augustine thinks it is absurd to locate the cause of the evil will. Perhaps, we should take into account Augustines view about The First Sin, when the defection of the bad angels was first encountered. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth And God saw that it was good (NRSV, propagation 1). If the Bible states that God created everything good because He is good, then evil, according to Augustine, is the absence of good and does not have any positive being--- defective and lack ... ...ents, love God to a higher place all and love your neighbor as yourself, indicate that we should love the most what is objectively the best. Pride is a perverse kind of narcissism and a feature of the will. Pride was t he deficient cause of Satan freely choosing himself over God and continues to be a relevant cause for humans as result of The Original Sin. In redemption, Jesus Christ, a model of humility, was the Second Adam who because of grace sacrifices Himself to bear and forgive humans of sin. I believe that we can choose to will good or to will evil. To freely will the love for the ultimate good means to willingly love God above all. Although our nature is subject to pride and is deficient in goodness, we can still choose what is good. By having this rightly ordered love , we choose the highest good. As a reward, God gives the gift of true happiness in the afterlife.