Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The problem of evil is a central issue in Christian moral philosophy. One explanation is that of Plato, who advocated a rationalist ethics whereby knowledge of right action was sufficient to produce correct moral behavior. For Plato, the cause of evil was ignorance of the truth. If one knew the right thing to do, one would actually do the right thing. There was no intervening concept of a perverse will. Catholic/Christianity’s moral/ethical philosophy introduced the concept of will as an intervening step between knowledge of the good and right action. Plato’s views were a great influence on St. Paul. Another strain of thought, as exemplified in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, argued that because of the effects of original sin, it was possible to know the right thing to do and still do evil. St Thomas Aquinas’ moral philosophy, which became the accepted theological basis for Christian moral teaching, examines in depth how it is possible to know the good and still do wrong. This paper compares and contrasts the ethical philosophy of Plato to that of St. Thomas Aquinas on the issue of whether or not knowledge of the good is sufficient to produce right action. This paper argues that this dichotomy of positions between Plato and Aquinas regarding the efficacy of intellect and will is actually a false dichotomy.