As society's rules and ideals changed over time, their definitions of evil were also completely revolutionized. Even though evil today is something morally reprehensible, a violation of a universal law, it has not always been seen in the same light. Both Saint Augustine and Plato characterized evil as a simple 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, 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 toward flourishing, and once a higher level of understanding is reached, it becomes apparent that evil was never necessary in the quest for what is ultimately sought, happiness. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Confessions, Augustine equates God with truth. The only way to find 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). Ultimately, the two become one entity and Augustine realizes, in retrospect, that he was searching for both at the same time. "...you [God], who truly are the Truth..." "The Truth! The Truth! How the very marrow of my soul within me longed for it..." (60). It could be argued that Augustine knew what he was doing when he sinned as a young man. He says on page fifty that he knew it was wrong, but he didn't know why he did it ("Could I enjoy doing wrong for no reason other than the fact that it was wrong?") . This is where the ignorance lies. If he had really sat down and thought about his desires, if he had really discovered himself and, at the same time, God, he would have realized that sin would not make him happy. He said repeatedly that he was ignorant, that he lacked the truth, that he had to learn to love God. These are not the statements of a wise man, but rather those of a man who knew not the evil of what he was doing. 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 later in life that he committed them. If he had known this, he would never have deviated from Christianity and would have spared himself many difficulties. Instead, he underwent much study and questioning to arrive at salvation. "Thus, step by step, my thoughts passed from the consideration of material things to the soul, which perceives things through the senses of the body, then to the inner power of the soul, to which the bodily senses communicate the external facts. Only then did he understand the harmful nature of sin and evil well enough to be able to renounce it. In Plato's Symposium we see a similar progression. Diotima asserts that beauty and knowledge are synonymous and that love is simply a life's 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 this immortality, this glory, no one can do evil unlessof being too ignorant to achieve what he is looking for. On page 49 (ln204A) she says: "For the particularly difficult thing about being ignorant is that you are pleased 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, at first glance, that Alcibiades' actions in the years following the Symposium might refute 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 really had no concept of wisdom or goodness, that He counted on Socrates on 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 really understand the nature of that thing (wisdom). He showed how ignorant he was when he proposed a trade, wisdom versus sex. If he had been wise, he would not have needed to offer Socrates sex in exchange for the wisdom he already possessed and he would have realized that it was an unfair exchange. In response, Socrates says: "[Alcibiades] you offer me the simplest appearance of beauty, and in return you want the thing itself, gold in exchange for bronze" (p. 70, ln218E) and “The sight of the mind becomes sharp only when the eyes of the body pass their apogee” (p. 71, ln219A). Socrates knew that Alcibiades was ignorant if no one else did. Alcibiades did not want to be ignorant, but desire alone was not enough to make him wise and protect him from evil. In another of Plato's works, The Menos, Socrates says: “...those who ignore their nature do so. they do not desire them [evils]; but they desire what they suppose to be goods, although in reality they are evils; and if they are mistaken and suppose that evils are good, they really desire good” (203). It is against man's nature to desire something that is not in his best interest, and his best interest, according to Augustine and Plato, is always the good. In Augustine's case, the best interest was not to sin and to be a faithful follower of God to avoid guilt and God's wrath. Once one knew the glory of heaven, there was no turning away from it. In Plato's case, anyone who could clearly see the immortality he desired would never do evil. Evil has been detrimental to immortality and personhood. But we must understand that neither Plato nor Augustine arrived at the truth all at once. 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 a shocking vision, we experience a series of epiphanies, almost as if we are gradually waking up. Every now and then we wake up a little more, arriving at a whole new plateau of reality. With each plateau we understand a little more clearly, but we realize that we are not yet completely awake. With each revelation, with each epiphany, we see a little more of the bigger picture. We see the harm we inflict on ourselves when we do evil, and we begin to understand what evil is. Evil may not seem like the same thing, depending on one's level of truth. Both Plato and Augustine said 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, leading to a cosmic love. The final step is not something we can ever reach,.