Finding the black and white in the grey.

If only one could roll his eyes back, inside his sockets, and look within himself. Sure, we can be introspective, and contemplate our inner workings, our heart’s desire, and our soul’s ambitions. But this mechanism is also intimately tied to and thus swayed by our brains faulty conjectures and mistaken self-image. What is a good man? What is a good woman? What is your criterion for the evaluation? How do you measure yourself in light of that criterion?  Our feeble flesh is alive with justifications to assure us that our worldly interactions, our inner thoughts, our spoken words are not indicative of who we truly are. So how do we see ourselves honestly? How do we find that honest voice within ourselves? And use it to better ourselves?

We are amalgamations; Blending’s of flesh and spirit that are part of an ongoing interaction with the visible and invisible world around us. It exerts a pull on us, as we likewise exert a pull on it. The gravity of the situation, however, is such that the fallen worlds pull would overpower ours. It is simply bigger. Its influence is beyond our capacity to resist. We are specks of sand on a beach, and the tide throws us where it pleases. We are small and seemingly insignificant: fuzz in the breeze.

Evil and Augustine

Introduction:

Within the confines of the Augustinian philosophy we find a possible solution to an age old philosophical labyrinth:  what is evil?  Augustine grappled with this problem throughout much of his early adult life.  While struggling with his personal iniquity he embraced the Manichean's philosophy.  Later, upon further investigation he developed a Monistic theory that had Platonic roots at its base.  The pinnacle of Augustine's explanation of evil is described in terms of privation and perspective, it is from these seeds that evil could be rationally understood.  This paper will endeavour to trace Augustine's conception of evil from a flimsy philosophical foundation to a sturdy one.