Augustine Confession

Augustine on his own view stole the fruit for the mere enjoyment of the sin and theft that the stealing involved. He says in (II,4)

“Behold, now let my heart tell you what it

looked for there, that I should be evil

without purpose and there should be no

cause for my evil, but evil itself. Foul

was the evil, and I loved it.”

Augustine knew that what he was doing at the time of the crime but he did not care to think about the outcome of his actions. Augustine only cared that the deed which he participated in was indeed forbidden. Himself and his companions stole the fruit even if they had more desirable fruit to eat at their own homes.

Augustine states this in his Confessions (II,4) that

“For I stole a thing of which I had plenty

of my own and much better quality. Nor did

I wish to enjoy the thing which I desired to

gain by theft, but rather to enjoy the actual

theft and sin of theft.”

The mere thrill of the theft and sin was more desirable than the fruit which they stole. The fruit was sought as an opportunity to be deceitful and to gain self enjoyment from it.

Augustine, however realizes that the theft that he committed

for the enjoyment of the sin of the crime was indeed unlawful. He thinks of why couldn’t he have received enjoyment by committing a more lawful act. In Augustines Confessions (II,6) He states:

“ O rottenness! O monstrous life and deepest

death! Could a thing give pleasure which

could not be done lawfully, and which was

done for no other reason because it was

unlawful?”

This shows that Augustine is starting to think about his actions. At the time of the act he was thinking of how much his actions pleased him. In book six of his confessions Augustine starts to think about the actions he had committed and how they were unlawful, not only in society but also in the world that God

created. However as Augustine starts to show remorse for his sins it does not change the fact that he stole the fruit from the tree for the pleasure of sin.

According to Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, a self indulgent person is led on by his own choice, since he believes that he should always pursue the pleasures of the moment(1147a). According to Aristotle, and viewing the crime in which Augustine committed, Augustine acted in self - indulgence or vice. Augustine knew that the crime that he was going to commit, the crime of stealing fruit, was indeed wrong and was a sin. He went ahead and committed the crime anyway, and he did it for pleasure. He was caught up in the moment of the act. Nothing else mattered at that time except for the act itself and the enjoyment that he was going to gain from it. Aristotle in this case would

categorize him as acting in self-indulgence. Whether Augustine knew it or not his actions were pre-meditated, carried out, and enjoyed whether the action was good or bad. This would make his actions actions of vice. Augustine acted without taking into account the the theft later on in life could affect his

conscious. Augustine at the time of his sin was indeed caught up in the moment.

Augustine states in (II,8):

“What fruit had I, so wretched of a boy,

from those deeds which I now blush to

recall, especially from that theft itself

and nothing else? For the theft itself was

nothing, and by that very fact I was more

miserable. Yet alone, by myself I would

not have done it such, I remember, my state

of mind at the time. Alone I would have never

done it.”

This shows how if he were alone, Augustine would never acted the way he did at the time of the crime. This brings into account what today’s society calls “peer preasure.” At the time of the incident, Augustine wanted to impress or be close with his peers. He states in (II,8)