Augustine: Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love

Augustine: Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love
Augustine begins by situating his views about good and evil within his theology. Augustine holds that all things were created by a supremely and unchangeably good God, and that because of this all created things are good, although not supremely and unchangeably so. Evil is merely the absence of good, and comes about when the nature of a good thing is corrupted. If a thing were wholly consumed by corruption, however, it would cease to be. Thus, no existing thing can ever be wholly corrupted, and every evil thing that exists must still contain some goodness. In light of this, Augustine claims, we must consider a wicked man to be an "evil good"-evil in virtue of his wickedness, but good in virtue of being a man. In contrast, something can be perfectly good without containing any evil.
Augustine then proceeds to a discussion of the nature of error. The essence of error is to accept what is false as if it were true. This is always an evil, although it is not always a sin, for people might sometimes be blameless in their errors. If this were not so, then it might be best to adopt the view of some Academic philosophers, that we should suspend judgment about all matters. Augustine rejects this view as absurd, however, on the grounds that if one holds that one is ignorant, it follows that one must at least be aware that one is alive, for only living beings can be ignorant.
Augustine concludes with a discussion of the morality of lying. In Augustine's view, lying is always a sin; one cannot lie even to save an innocent person from injury. Nonetheless, some lies are clearly worse than others. Although some lies might be pardoned, the most serious lies are those that concern matters of religion. Augustine insists, however, that no lie should ever be praised.
-Augustine claims that it is better to say something false while believing it to be true than to say something true while believing it to be false.