Kant, Christianity, and Free Will

kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca
Thu Dec 23 08:30:45 PST 1999


On Thu, 23 Dec 1999 10:26:47 -0500 Charles Brown <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us> wrote:


> CB: Hell, why not look to the snake in the garden and original sin, the
original source of Luther and Calvin's doctrine. The idea of ineradicable evil of human nature is not original with these guys.

Because Augustine *invented* the idea of original sin - it isn't textually based.


> CB: I thought Christian doctrine attributes free will, given by God, to
humans. The repressive paradox is that not only are humans (supposedly) born in sin, but they also have free will and are thereby somehow responsible for their actions. The original damned if you do and damned if you don't.

The idea of free will in Xianity is a fairly late development, it pretty must starts with Augustine (who really aruged that human beings weren't free at all since *everything* in the universe is sustained solely by God) (ie. human beings are responsible for sin, but they have no choice) (predestination). Strictly speaking, only Adam and Eve were the only free human beings - and their sin so great that all the rest of humanity is to suffer because of it. Augustine holds human "free will" to be responsible for hurricanes and earthquakes...


> CB: Still sounds like that old time religion.

Sort of, without the light at the end of the tunnel. Remember, Lacan's argument is a political one, not a metaphysical "city of god."


> CB: Adam and Eve fell out of nature into culture.

Which is exactly what Locke argued - from the state of nature (perfect freedom) into civil society (civil freedom).


> CB: This sounds teleological. Was there no contingency, no free will ?

With C and R it's all about contingency.


> CB: We still need to get rid of capitalism.

Yep.


> CB: God _is_ alienated "man" , in the sense of humanity. God is a fantastic
projection of what our human potential is in communism.


>From Feuerbach to Marx.

ken



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