Evil Human Nature: From the Perspectives of St. Augustineand Hsun Tzu

Xiajun Hu, Jing Guo

.

DOI: 10.4236/ojpp.2011.12011                

Abstract

The view of evil human nature is important in Chinese and western cultures. The thesis chooses evil human in St. Augustine’s thoughts and Hsun Tzu’s thoughts to compare and analyze evil in these two. St. Augustine, who is called “the Saint of God”, views the definition of evil, the resource of it, and salvations of it from the aspect of religious beliefs. He considers that evil is the privation of goodness and is not created by God. Because God is omnipotent and all-good, it is impossible for God to create evil. Evil results from the free will of human beings themselves. If people want to attain their salvations, they should use their free will to choose good will and follow the goodness given by God. Hsun Tzu, one of Confucian scholars, puts forward evil human nature which is totally different from good human nature in Confucianism. He views the definition of evil, the source of it, and ways to change evil into good from the angle of social reality in Warring States Period. In Hsun Tzu’s views, evil results from the uninhibited extension of sound physical needs and desires for living. Hsun Tzu believes that human nature is evil and goodness comes from nurture, therefore, converting evil into good is to change human nature through nurturing. By further comparison and analysis, the thesis further looks into these two perspectives from their differences and similarities. It states their differences from five aspects: backgrounds, ways to change evil to good, categories, historical status, and positions of human beings. Apart from those, the thesis also refers to their similarities to complement the comparative analysis. From comparison and analysis, we can draw two conclusions: first, evil human nature from Hsun Tzu is simple in connotation and relatively objective compared with the view of St. Augustine; second, St. Augustine thinks that human beings are equal in front of evil, which has positive significance compared with the ideas posed by Hsun Tzu who insists on the distinction between saint and ordinary people, between monarchs and their subjects.

Keywords

Augustine, Hsun Tzu, Evil, Free Will, Nurture

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Plantinga, A. (2000). Warranted Christian belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/0195131932.001.0001
[2]	Duong, K. (2009). Philosphy of evil from a Kant and St. Augustine
[3]	perspective. URL (last checked 2009) http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1479734/philosphy_of_evil_from_a_kant_and_st.html?cat=47
[4]	Hexter. (2009). Augustinian theodicy. URL (last checked 2009) http://everything2.com/title/Augustinian%2520Theodicy
[5]	Koukl, G. (2005). Augustine on evil. URL (last checked 2009) http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=1077
[6]	Augustine, St. (1953). To simplician on various questions, in augustine: earlier writings. London: The Westminster Press.
[7]	Battle, J. (1996). How can god be just and ordain evil. Western Refor- med Seminary Journal, 3, 1.
[8]	Campbell, R. (2001). The covert metaphysics of the clash between “Analytic” and “Continental” philosophy. British Journal for the History of philosophy, 9, 341-359. doi:10.1080/09608780110045335
[9]	Xia, Z.-T. (1987). The philosophy of Hsun Tzu. Shanghai: Shanghai Peo- ple Press House.
[10]	Hsun Tzu. (2004). Hsun Tzu. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region: Distant Press House.
[11]	Yang, M.-M. (2000). Augustine’s theory of sin. Journal of Anqing Teachers College (Social Science Edition), 19, 83-88.
[12]	Peterfreund, D. W. (2003). Great traditions in ethics. Beijing: Peking University Press.
[13]	Holy Bible, (2000). National TSPM & CCC.
[14]	Brown, M. (2005). Augustine on freedom and God. The Saint Anselm Journal, 2, 50-65.
[15]	Augustine, St. (2003). Confessions. Beijing: HuaWen Press.
[16]	Noel, M. B. (2004). Philosophy: The power of ideas. New York: Mc- Graw-Hill Companies Press.
[17]	Chen, Y.-G. & Xiao, J.-P. (2006). The definition of Hsun Tzu’s evil human nature. Journal of Hengyang Normal University, 27, 22-27.
[18]	Wang, Y.-M. (2008). Comparison of Chinese and Western evil human nature and its significance. Journal of Tianjin Normal University (Social Science Edition), 4, 1-5.
[19]	Peterfreund, D. W. (2003). Great traditions in ethics. Beijing: Peking Uni- versity Press.
[20]	Jiang, P. (2008). The basic paradigm of augustine and the Christian theology. Journal of Guangzhou Institute of Socialism, 1, 74-77.
[21]	Chen, J.-Y. (2002). Comparison Western evil human nature in West and East and their policital influences. Qinghai Social Sciences, 6, 113-115.
[22]	Zhou, L.-X. (2007). Analysis of Augustine’s treatment of the problem of evil. Journal of Yunnan Univeristy (Social Science Edition), 6, 58-66.