As society's rules and ideals have changed over time, their definitions of evil have also been completely revolutionized. Even though today evil is something morally wrong, a violation of some universal law, it has not always been seen in the same light. Both St. Augustine and Plato characterized evil simply as an absence of good. Since both men equated good with wisdom, evil, the absence of good, was akin to ignorance, the absence of wisdom. In their books Confessions and Symposium, both Augustine and Plato support the idea that evil is only possible through ignorance. They explain the transition from evil and ignorance to good and wisdom as a progression towards realization, and once a higher level of understanding is reached, it becomes obvious that evil was never necessary in the pursuit of what is ultimately search for happiness. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the Confessions, Augustine identifies God with truth. The only way to find the truth is to find God, and the two are so intertwined that it's hard to tell them apart. “No one can tell me the truth except my God, who enlightens my mind and dispels its shadows” (52). Eventually the two become one entity and Augustine realizes, in retrospect, that he was looking for them both at the same time. "...you [God], who are truly the Truth..." "Truth! Truth! As the marrow of my soul within me desired it..." (60). It could be argued that Augustine knew what he was doing when he sinned as a young man. On page fifty he says that he knew it was wrong, but he didn't know why he did it ("Could I enjoy doing something wrong for the sole reason that it was wrong?"). There lies the ignorance. If he had really sat down and thought about his desires, had truly discovered himself and, at the same time, God, he would have realized that sin would not make him happy. He says many times that he was ignorant, that he lacked the truth, that he had to learn to love God. These are not statements of a wise man, but rather of someone who did not know the harm of what he did. Once he found God and became a Christian, he stopped sinning. The closer he got to God and the truth, the wiser he became, and the wiser he became, the less he sinned. It was only because he did not realize the pain and guilt his sins would cause him to suffer later in life that he committed them. If he had known this, he would never have turned away from Christianity and would have saved himself many difficulties. Instead he subjected himself to many studies and questions to reach salvation. "Thus, step by step, my thoughts moved from the consideration of material things to the soul, which perceives things through the senses of the body, and then to the inner power of the soul, to which the bodily senses communicate external facts," ( 151). Only then did he understand the harmful nature of sin and evil enough to renounce them. In Plato's Symposium we see a similar progression. Diotima states that beauty and knowledge are synonymous and that love is simply a lifelong journey in search of beauty and wisdom. Getting these things for ourselves is the first step. The second step is to pass them on to someone else. We achieve immortality by teaching others wise and beautiful things, good things. Since everyone's ultimate goal is immortality, this glory, no one can do evil unless he is too ignorant to realize what he seeks. On page 49 (ln204A) he says: "For what is especially difficult about being ignorant is that you are happy with yourself, even if you are neither beautiful, nor good, nor intelligent."Ignorant people do evil because they don't realize they could do better. It might seem, initially, that Alcibiades' actions in the years following the Symposium might disprove this idea; he was wise and still committed a great sin when he defaced the statues of the gods and abandoned Athens, but Socrates makes some comments during Alcibiades' speech that indicate that Alcibiades actually had no concept of wisdom or good, that he relied on Socrates out of blind faith . The wisdom of his youth was not his own, but simply an imitation of a man he revered. He wanted what Socrates had, even though he didn't truly understand the nature of that thing (wisdom). He showed how ignorant he was when he proposed a trade, wisdom for sex. If he had been wise, he would not have needed to offer sex to Socrates in exchange for the wisdom he already possessed and would have realized that it was an unfair exchange. In response, Socrates says, "[Alcibiades] you offer me the smallest appearance of beauty, and in return you want the thing itself, gold for bronze,'" (pg70, ln218E) and "The mind's sight becomes keen only when the eyes of the body pass their prime,” (pg71, ln219A). Socrates knew that Alcibiades was ignorant if no one else knew. Alcibiades did not want to be ignorant, but desire alone was not enough to make him wise and protect him from the harm of evil. In another work of Plato, The Meno, Socrates says "...those who are ignorant of their own nature do not desire them [evils]; but they desire what they suppose to be goods, even if in reality they are evils and if they are mistaken and suppose that evils are goods, do they really desire goods? (203) It is against man's nature to desire something that is not in his best interests, and his best interest, according to Augustine and Plato, is always the good of Augustine, the best interest was not to sin and be a faithful follower of God to avoid the guilt and wrath of God. Once one knew the glory of heaven, it was impossible to turn away from it, anyone could see clearly the immortality he desired would never have done harm. But it is necessary to realize that neither Plato nor Augustine suddenly arrived at the truth as we progress, we begin to see the truth. We have always wanted happiness, but we cannot know what will bring us happiness without wisdom. Rather than an earth-shattering insight, we undergo a series of epiphanies, almost like a gradual awakening. Every now and then we wake up a little more, arriving at a completely new level of reality. With each plateau we understand a little more clearly, but we realize that we are not yet fully awake. With each revelation, each epiphany, we see a little more of the big picture. We see the damage we inflict on ourselves when we do evil things and we begin to realize what evil is. Evil may not seem like the same thing, depending on one's level of truth. Both Plato and Augustine claimed that this search for truth was a lifelong journey. Diotima spoke of the love of bodies, then of beauty in general, then of souls, then of knowledge, finally in a cosmic love. The last stage is not something we can ever reach, but we must keep walking towards it. Augustine's personal progress towards Christianity was similar. First he realized that something was missing and started looking. He found that a number of things were not at all what he needed, so he discovered Christianity. He didn't accept it immediately, but he studied it and made it his own, little by little. He eventually became a Christian, but because he is human and on earth, he is still imperfect. Sin again. Study further, hoping to learn more. It's part of the.