Augustine's Theodicy Problem

The purpose of this paper is to understand how Augustine’s reflections in the Free Choice of the Will on the theodicy problem are Socratic (Book 1). Theodicy is a branch of philosophy dealing with the issue of evil considering the existence of God. The theodicy problem arises from the notion that if God is an omnipotent and just being, then why is there evil in the world? Could it be that God is the creator of the evil within the world? Augustine reflects on these topics not only in a Socratic manner, but also displays elements of Socrates in his personal philosophy. The Socratic method can be broken down into two major components: the ‘developing of the logos’ stage and the ‘conclusion’ stage. There are also Socratic features that are
This dialectic form of writing is reminiscent of Plato’s Meno, where Meno asks Socrates the nature of virtue and they have a cooperative exercise in the inquiry of virtue. Dialectic form seems to be a trend in displaying the two parts of the Socratic Method. The beginning of the text has traces of the ‘developing of the logos’ stage with the initial question of if God is the cause of evil proposed by Evodius (Book One-1). Augustine then asks Evodius to define evil, in the same vain that Socrates asked Meno to define what he means by virtue. A logos of what evil is must be defined even before they try to understand God’s part in it. So, this opens the discussion of if evil is learned (Book One-1) and what makes an action evil (Book
As Augustine or Evodius answer a question, the other who did not ask the question gives an answer that spins the question on its head into something deeper. For example, Augustine asked Evodius if he believes that adultery is evil because the law forbids it and Evodius replies that it is not evil because its illegal but its evil because the action is evil (Book One-2). This statement helps define the terms of the discussion but also provides an answer and space for further dialogue. A common trend in Socratic Dialogue is that there never seems to be a conclusion to the initial question. Even after Augustine concludes that it must be our free will that drive man to do evil acts, Evodius questions that since God gave us the ability to sin from our free will then wouldn’t God still be the cause of our sins for giving us free will? Augustine then dismisses this question saying they’ll figure it out some other time (Book One-3). This is Socratic in nature because there is still further questioning to be done but, in the meantime, at least they formulated a logos for every other question they posed and now have a richer understanding of the theodicy