奥古斯丁自由意志的变奏

On Augustine’s Free Will

关于人是否拥有自由意志,哲学家们始终莫衷一是。处于中世纪之初的奥古斯丁继承了古希腊哲学的理性精神,并在与摩尼教和佩拉纠学派论战中,逐渐形成了有着独特理解的自由意志学说。在早期,他从基督教绝对一元论视角出发,提出了只存在人类道德上的恶、不存在形而上的恶和人具有从罪中觉生的自由等观点。在他看来,上帝能够预知却没有预定人会犯罪,罪的行为是人自由选择的结果。晚期的奥古斯丁对自由意志概念进行了修正,对人所具有的自由意志加以限定,但仍然没有取消人的自由意志。奥古斯丁强调“自愿即自由”,即自由意志是人自我决断的自由。

Philosophers have long debated whether or not man possesses free will.Augustine,living in the beginning of the Middle Ages,inherited the rational spirit of ancient Greek philosophy and gradually formed the doctrine of free will in his debates with Manichaeism and Pelagianism.From the perspective of Christian absolute monism,he proposed in the early days that there is only human moral evil,but no metaphysical evil,and that man has the freedom to be born from sin.In his view,God could foresee but did not predestine man to sin,and the act of sin was the result of man’s free choice.Later,Augustine revised the concept of free will and limited man’s free will,but did not abandon it.Augustine emphasized that“free will is liberty”,that is,free will is the freedom of self-determination of man.