On Free Choice Of The Will

Continuing where they left off, Evodius and Augustine move into a discussion of why God would create human beings with free will if it is this power which allows them to do evil and sin. As Evodius summarizes: “If I understood Book One correctly, we have free choice of the will and we cannot sin without it” (29). Augustine agrees but proceeds to take the discussion in a different direction. While acknowledging that what Evodius has stated is correct, he flips the circumstances: “If human beings are good things, and they cannot do right unless they so will, then they ought to have a free will, without which they cannot do right. True, they can also use free will to sin, but we should not therefore believe that God gave them free will so that they would be able to sin” (30). So even though it is possible for sin to be the result of the free will, this was not the purpose for which they were created, since God is good and human beings were created to be similarly good.

To strengthen his assertion, Augustine asks Evodius if he is aware of his own existence.