On Evil and Free Will in Augustine's Free Will
evil, free will, ontology
n this Research Project, we present an analysis of the Augustinian theme about evil and free will. For this purpose, we seek, in the work O Livre Arbítrio, by Agostinho (1995), the primordial support for the investigation that we intend. However, an analysis of the precedents of the Augustinian reflections on evil and free will found in the work Confessions (1997) was necessary. Starting from this point, we turn to the reflections contained in the work O Livre Arbítrio (1995), in which Augustine justifies the reality of evil and the compatibility of its existence in a creation considered full of goods participating in divine goodness. Intending to absolve God of the existence of evil in the world, he presents us with a radically hierarchical ontology, which allows the Augustinian investigation to find its support in ontological bases, which justify evil as an absence of good. Only in this way can he equate the existence of God and the reality of evil.