Augustine At The Time Of His Sin example essay topic

Augustine's Confession Augustine on his own view stole the fruit for the mere enjoyment of the sin and theft that the stealing involved. He says in (II, 4) 'Behold, now let my heart tell you what it looked for there, that I should be evil without purpose and there should be no cause for my evil, but evil itself. Foul was the evil, and I loved it. ' ; Augustine knew that what he was doing at the time of the crime but he did not care to think about the outcome of his actions.

Augustine only cared that the deed which he participated in was indeed forbidden. Himself and his companions stole the fruit even if they had more desirable fruit to eat at their own homes. Augustine states this in his Confessions (II, 4) that 'For I stole a thing of which I had plenty of my own and much better quality. Nor did I wish to enjoy the thing which I desired to gain by theft, but rather to enjoy the actual theft and sin of theft. ' ; The mere thrill of the theft and sin was more desirable than the fruit which they stole. The fruit was sought as an opportunity to be deceitful and to gain self enjoyment from it.

Augustine, however realizes that the theft that he committed for the enjoyment of the sin of the crime was indeed unlawful. He thinks of why couldn't he have received enjoyment by committing a more lawful act. In Augustine Confessions (II, 6) He states: ' O rottenness! O monstrous life and deepest death! Could a thing give pleasure which could not be done lawfully, and which was done for no other reason because it was unlawful?' ; This shows that Augustine is starting to think about his actions.

At the time of the act he was thinking of how much his actions pleased him. In book six of his confessions Augustine starts to think about the actions he had committed and how they were unlawful, not only in society but also in the world that God created. However as Augustine starts to show remorse for his sins it does not change the fact that he stole the fruit from the tree for the pleasure of sin. According to Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, a self indulgent person is led on by his own choice, since he believes that he should always pursue the pleasures of the moment (1147 a). According to Aristotle, and viewing the crime in which Augustine committed, Augustine acted in self - indulgence or vice.

Augustine knew that the crime that he was going to commit, the crime of stealing fruit, was indeed wrong and was a sin. He went ahead and committed the crime anyway, and he did it for pleasure. He was caught up in the moment of the act. Nothing else mattered at that time except for the act itself and the enjoyment that he was going to gain from it. Aristotle in this case would categorize him as acting in self-indulgence. Whether Augustine knew it or not his actions were pre-meditated, carried out, and enjoyed whether the action was good or bad.

This would make his actions actions of vice. Augustine acted without taking into account the the theft later on in life could affect his conscious. Augustine at the time of his sin was indeed caught up in the moment. Augustine states in (II, 8): 'What fruit had I, so wretched of a boy, from those deeds which I now blush to recall, especially from that theft itself and nothing else?

For the theft itself was nothing, and by that very fact I was more miserable. Yet alone, by myself I would not have done it such, I remember, my state of mind at the time. Alone I would have never done it. ' ; This shows how if he were alone, Augustine would never acted the way he did at the time of the crime. This brings into account what today's society calls 'peer pleasure.

' ; At the time of the incident, Augustine wanted to impress or be close with his peers. He states in (II, 8) 'If I had merely liked the pears that I stole, and merely wished to eat them, I could have done so by myself, were doing that wrong deed enough to lead me to my pleasure. Nor would I have needed to arouse the itch of my desires by rubbing together of guilty minds? But my pleasures lay not in the pears, it lay in the evil deed itself, which a group of us joined in such sin to do. ' ; It was Augustine with his companions that made the act so appealing at the time. A group can be more persuasive to do wrong than a single individual.

There are certain aspects that exist in a group that do not exist in the mind of a single individual. An individual in a group feels 'pressure'; to act within the group, to go along and not to be left out. In the quote given above Austin mentions the term 'guilty minds. ' ; This shows that when you are part of a group, all the minds and actions of all the individuals in that respected group act as one unit. A certain individual in the group may not want to go along with the plan, but feels obligated in a way to not act as he would alone, but to act in a way that may not be so clear to him at the time. The individual in a group may not act rationally, but rather he would act irrationally without realizing his consequences.

We see this in today's society as well. The constant pressure to drink alcohol is evident, to 'fit in'; with a group of friends. At the time you may take a drink, while the others are drinking. You were pressured into drinking, not realizing the affects. Later on in the evening you get behind the wheel of an automobile. Not realizing the consequences that may lie ahead, you drink and put the key into the ignition anyway.

Later on down the road you get into an accident injuring an innocent pedestrian. You drank to go along with the group around you, and you probably got behind the wheel with the 'guilty minds'; persuading you while you were not in a clear state of mind. You drank for enjoyment and for the sheer enjoyment alone. You drove the car to your so-called friends.

After the accident and you have sobered up, you realize that you are indeed all alone. Your friends are gone from your side and all you have is yourself. You are alone left to reflect on your actions and you come to the final conclusion that if you acted rationally, as your own individual you would not have this guilt on your conscious the rest of your life. If you acted alone none of these incidents would have occurred. This is what augustine is trying to get through to us in (II, 8-9). That if he acted alone, the pressure to sin would have been his own decision and not that of a group.

He was not in a clear state of mind, just like that of the person who drank and got behind the wheel of an automobile. If Augustine's state of mind was clear, he would have acted more rationally. Throughout the Confessions of Augustine we see his constant struggle of what is the rational way to behave as an individual and what is the ir ration way of behaving. Many examples are given from actions of vice to actions brought on by the ways of 'peer pressure'; and conforming with a group. To say the least, Augustine at the end of his tale of the stolen fruit regret ed his sin. He went from a person who received sheer enjoyment and gratification at the time of the crime to a man later in life realized the right and wrong of his actions. the only regret that he has is that that moment in his life is gone forever, not to be replaced.

Augustine had to live with hi immoral choice the rest of his days. Work Cited Augustine, St. The Confessions of St. Augustine. Trans. John K. Ryan.

New York: Doubleday, 1960. Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. Martin Oswald. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1962.