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This essay discusses the ninth chapter of On Free Choice of the Will by Saint Augustine, as translated by Thomas Williams. The chapter consists of Saint Augustine having a dialogue with Evodius aboutwhether wisdom exists and if it does exist what it is. Saint Augustine says that wisdom is the mean by which we acquire happiness. Furthermore, he states that everybody wants a happy life and theylook for it; although they make errors while doing so. Finally, Saint Augustine says that human beings can acquire happiness by means of the highest good. In this paper, I will both delineate SaintAugustine’s dialogue and offer a reflection on its implication for human action.
This chapter starts with Saint Augustine asking Evodius how “human beings ought to regard wisdom.” Saint Augustinecontinues by asking Evodius if each person has wisdom. This brings Evodius to ask what wisdom is, since he is not certain what it is, and he explains how people generally think they have wisdom: “those whoserve in wars think that they are acting wisely. Those who despise the military and devote their care and labor to farming think more highly of what they do.” Evodius tries to say that people thinkthat they are doing the right thing by doing what their reason says is right. Nevertheless, they are not acting according to reason but according to their will, which is the movement towards the end.Evodius says that each person has his own definition of wisdom. For this reason, Saint Augustine brings up the definition of wisdom “wisdom is nothing other than the truth in which the highest good isdiscerned and acquired.”
Saint Augustine says that all of us want to be happy and therefore, wise because there is no happiness without wisdom. In addition, in order to be happy we must acquire thehighest good which we achieve by means of wisdom. Thus, some people are not happy because they act according to their will without reasoning whether what they are doing is right or not. Therefore,...