Augustine and Aquinas - Essay Example

Augustine and Aquinas of the of Augustine and Aquinas Page I believe that the ethical motive of the office workeris that the he is obliged to stay at his job till his duty requires. Since the office worker was more considerate towards his own well being and necessities, he was not paying attention to the office and their demands. His absence was leading to the development of slack that was to be picked by the workers that were performing their duties thus de-motivating them as they were in a sense overburdened by the negligence of their absent colleague.

Although his absenteeism was allowed by the management who instead of penalizing his actions by either replacing or firing him, they allowed him to enjoy vacations more and more. Considering the ethical theory of St. Augustine, the action of the office worker was doing bad as his action was causing others to suffer, an evil consequence. According to Augustine evil can be referred as the lack of goodness but people are allowed to do evil in order to achieve what has been destined by God. So those who are being burdened by the evil of the office worker should not focus on the evil deed but have faith that it is what god wants to happen.

But Augustine does not refer that each action should be penalized but at least such actions need some ultimatums to be corrected. While Aquinas theory predicts that since the office worker was doing evil, it was by his own will. So he should have been penalized to learn what his duty is and let others not be burdened and de-motivated by the evil of a careless worker. Page 2 Analyzing the act of Rhonda, it is well established that back-biting about others is a bad act while she was gossiping about others including her friends.

This act can’t be justified to be good in either Augustine’s philosophy or following the theory of Aquinas. As both believe that evil is something that lack goodness, either of them differs in the way that evil is caused. Aquinas believe that evil is not determined by the outcomes but by the intent of individual committing that deed, while Augustine believes that one chooses to be evil as it is destined by god. Utilizing Aquinas belief it can be justified that since Rhonda does not attempt to hurt others intentionally but to have good time so this intention might make her act to be good but the other side of it can’t be ignored as this is against the laws of god to enjoy by hurting others.

So the act of Rhonda may be considered evil as it was intentional and done by the her own will and not forced, as defined by the Aquinas’s philosophy while it was leading to an evil outcome as her friends might feel bad if they know that they were part of the daily gossip activities of their supposed friend, ‘Rhonda’. Thus this act should be either rectified by Rhonda herself or by any other mean. However, Augustine proposes that she is doing something evil because god wants her to do that, so the action is meant by god’s will and not by merely selection by Rhonda.

Aquinas believes that since she is completely liable to her deeds, she should correct her act and mere waiting for the moment that when it will be rectified by god’s intention to rectify it (Juwono, 2004). ReferencesJuwono, B. (2004). Post 4: Augustine Vs Aquinas. Philosophy 12. Retrieved from http://phil12.blogspot.com/2004/07/post-4-augustine-vs-aquinas.html