History of the philosophy (Medieval)

By: Sem. Jian Gabriel Bungabong

St. Augustine
Justice
According to St. Augustine
 Public or political life is under the same rule of moral law as is a person’s individual or
personal life.
 There is a single source of truth for both realms.
 This truth is: entire, inviolate and not subject to changes in human life.
 All people recognize this truth and know it as natural law or natural justice..
 He considered natural law to be our intellectual sharing in God’s truth, that is, God’s
eternal law.
 He’s notion of eternal law had been anticipated by the Stoics when they spoke of the
diffusion of the principle of reason throughout all of nature. As such, they ascribed to this
reason the role and power of ruling everything.
 Their theory was the mind (nous), the principle of reason, constituted the laws of nature.
 Whereas the Stoics, then, considered the laws of nature to be the working of the
impersonal force of rational principles in the universe, He interpreted the eternal law as
the reason and will of personal God.
 He writes, “Eternal law is the divine reason and the will of God which commands the
maintenance (observance) of the natural order of things and which forbids the disturbance
of it.”
 Since eternal law is God’s reason commanding orderliness, our intellectual grasp of
the eternal principles is called natural law.
 When a political state makes a law, he said, such temporal laws must be in accord with
the principle of natural law, which in turn is derived from eternal law.
 Augustine’s chief argument regarding law and justice was that the political state is not
autonomous and that, in making laws, the state does not merely express its power to
legislate. Thus, the state must also follow the requirements of justice.
 Justice is a standard, moreover, that precedes the state and is eternal. What made he’s
argument unique was his novel interpretation of the meaning of justice.
 He accepted Plato’s formula: “Justice is a virtue distributing to every one his due.” But
he asked, what is “due” to anyone?
 He rejected the notion that justice is a matter of custom that differs in each society.
 For him we discover justice in the structure of human nature with its relation to God.
 Hence, he said that justice is “the habit of the soul which imparts to every person the
dignity due him…Its origin proceeds from nature… and this notion of justice…is not the
product of personal opinion, but something implanted by certain innate power.”
 He argued that if the laws of the state were out of harmony with natural law and justice,
they would not have the character of laws, nor would there be a state.
 History of the philosophy (Medieval)
By: Sem. Jian Gabriel Bungabong

 By relating justice to moral law, He argued that justice is not limited merely to the
relations between people. The primary relationship in justice is between a person and
God: “If people do not serve God what justice can be thought to be in them?”
 Moreover, collective justice is impossible apart from the individual justice, for “if this
justice is not found in one person, no more then can it be found in whole multitude of
such like people. Therefore, among such there is not that consent of law which makes
a multitude of people just.”
 To serve God is to love God, but this means also to love our fellow human. All of ethics,
then, is based on our love for God and love for other people.
LOVE is the basis of justice.
 He believed that, according to God’s law, religion is in a position of superiority over
political institutions. Nevertheless, he did concede to the state the right to use coercive
force.
 Indeed, the state is the product of the sinful condition of human nature and, therefore,
exists as a necessary agency of control. Even so, he would never concede that the
principle of force was higher than the principle of love.
 For he says that, “…where the object of love is the universal good which in its highest
and truest character is God himself...”
 The earthly state has an important function, even though its force cannot match the
creative power of love. Specifically, the state’s action can at least mitigate some evils:
“When the power to do harm is taken from the bad people, they will carry themselves in a
more controlled manner.”

THE TWO CITIES

 Love of God as the central principle of morality
 Disordered love as his theory for evil
TWO DIVISION OF HUMAN RACE
1. Those who love God
2. Those who love themselves and the world.
THE TWO OPPOSING SOCIETY
1. City of God or Those who love God
2. City of the World or Those who love themselves and the world

 Because, not all people in the Church is the City of God and there are some in the state
who also love God.
 These two cities according to Augustine is not identical with Church and State.
 Therefore, wherever those people who love God, there will be the City of God and
wherever there are those who love the world, there will be the city of the world.
 History of the philosophy (Medieval)
By: Sem. Jian Gabriel Bungabong

 Augustine saw a clue, within the conflict of the two cities, to a philosophy of history.
Augustine firstly defines that:
Philosophy of History - history has meaning
 The Early Greek historians saw no pattern in human in human events except he fact that
the kingdoms rise and fall and that there are cycles of repetition.
 Aristotle argues that the history is hardly capable of teaching people any important
knowledge about human nature.
 Unlike drama, for Aristotle, history deals with individual people, nations, and events
whereas drama deals with universal condition of all history.
 For Augustine, the HUMAN HISTORY is the greatest drama.
 -History begins with the creation and was interspersed with important events, such as fall
of humanity and creation of God.
 -History is now involved in a tension between the City of God and the City of the World.
 -Nothing happens without reference to God’s Ultimate providence.
 Augustine thought that this was particularly so with the political events of his own day.
 Goths sacked Rome in 410
 - Effected many non-Christians blame on Christians, saying that their excessive emphasis
on loving and serving God had the effect of diluting patriotism and weakening the
defenses of the State.
 Augustine, by this, wrote his book City of God in 413
 He argued that the fall of Rome was due to the rampant vice throughout the empire,
which Christian faith and love could have prevented.
 -Augustine sought that we must establish the City of God and restrain from the City of
the World.
 -He believes that we all can find in the drama of history, since we are inevitably linked
with the two cities and with activity of God.
 -There is an all- embracing destiny for human beings and the world, and it will be
achieved in God’s time and when the love of God reigns.