`Views on ethical responsabilitiy`: Augustine(The City of God), Plato (Apology), Mark (The Gospel According to Mark)

Ethical Responsibility

Ethical Responsibility is an abstract value , almost moralistic in nature , and is such that requires careful if not , critical analysis of premises and conclusions . It is my belief that I cannot make a verdict on the three major texts , without fully studying all the books and texts Augustine , Plato and Mark has written . So rather than saying that the authors have similar views on ethical responsibility , I will say similar to Plato 's statement in the Apology - I cannot convince you of that - for we had a short conversation only

' - that these texts have more similarities than differences

In City of God , Augustine started to discuss his position by debunking Cicero 's arguments as regards divination or foreknowledge . He says that Cicero must have feared the fact that if there is a Supreme Being who knows what will happen (or if foreknowledge is possible , then people must be simply following what has been laid before them before they were born (thus , free will can 't exist . He asserts on the other hand , that free will can exist even if God has foreknowledge of what is to happen . He said , that there is a certain of things of things foreknown by God ' and further interprets that God being the first cause and creator , has infallible knowledge of what has , is and will , that is of no limits or boundaries and thus , includes everything conceivable and inconceivable for the human mind and all that is known and unknown . He said , .though there is for God a certain of all causes , there must therefore be nothing depending on the free exercise of our own wills , for our wills themselves are included in that of causes which is certain to God , and is embraced by His foreknowledge , for human wills are also causes of human action and He who foreknew all the causes of things would certainly among those cause not have been ignorant of our wills ' By this , he explains that the good will - what we call , free will or human will , is simply a limited power granted by God , and such being the case , allows us to choose what we shall do , not because God has already intervened the decision we shall make but because God knows all the possibilities (and non-possibilities ) there can ever be

In a similar way , in Apology , Plato attempts to convince the jury ' that his teaching and practicing philosophy is part of God 's design . He narrated that the reason why he has been charged of many accusations is because Chaeperephon was advised by an oracle (a Pythian prophetess , there was no one man wiser ' than Plato - and to this , he explained , God only is wise and in this oracle , he means to say the wisdom of men is little or nothing ' Furthermore , he adds , And so I go my way , obedient to the God and make inquisition into the wisdom of anyone , whether citizen or stranger , who appears to...