Love & Evil

1. Love & Evil St Augustine

2. Love • Different human needs prompt different acts (types) of love • Love is the act that harmonizes these needs and their objects • Love action movies • Love ice cream • Love pet • Love person • Objects of love are not interchangeable • One doesn’t love pet the same as ice cream

3. Love • The penultimate level of love is love between persons • Love for friends • Love for parents • Love for spouse • Since objects of love are not interchangeable, there is (or should be) no competition between these different loves

4. Love • Ultimate Level is Love for God • People are made to love God • “When the will, which is the intermediate good, cleaves to the immutable good… people find therein the blessed life [summumbonum].” • To love God is the indispensable requirement for happiness • Nothing can substitute for this love • Objects of love are not interchangeable

5. Love & Evil • Evil is • choosing to interchange objects of love • Loving pet like one loves a spouse • expecting more from an object than what it is capable of giving • Above all else, self-love • Choosing self as the highest object of love • One word: pride (arrogance)

6. Love & Evil • The “original” evil is pride • Original – first, of the origin • Original – inherited • Pride is choosing self interests, self desires, self, instead of choosing God as the ultimate source of happiness

7. Love & Evil • Evil is “disordered love” • Love that moves in the wrong direction • Love that mixes up the order • Love that denies the True Love • Love that prefers what is not (what cannot be) for what is • Metaphysical – Love is choosing what doesn’t exist