Augustine aims to prove that God creates nature and human beings as good, but evil comes from human free-will: how one choose good or evil. Mengzi believes that people are predisposed to be good, but they must develop or cultivate this innate good to attain the most of it. Furthermore, Augustine and Mengzi agree that human beings born inherently good. However, they disagree on how this good is altered by experiencing life and evil, whether it is one choice or one needs to cultivate this good.
Augustine explains that God is good and that the “good God made everything good” (p.116). He believes that all human beings are inherently good. Nature is good because has not been corrupted by anything. Evil corrupts nature and therefore affects the good by confronting it to make it worse or better: “change for the worst that is altered from beauty to misery and needs help to deliver and purify it” (p.113). God did not create evil, but evil exists to make the world good. Things that are corruptible can become better because they can surpass corruption. Augustine claims that people’s free-will is the reason why evil exists. He said: “I directed my mind to understand what I was being told, namely that the free choice of the will is the reason why we do wrong and suffer your judgment” (p.113). In other words, our environment set the way one thinks so people corrupt themselves with each other. One must constantly work interiorly on what is considered good or bad and make their own point of view of what is good or evil. People, by interacting which each other, conceives ideas that can impact their judgment and behavior. Augustine is worried about how society works and in what people believe that can impact their goodness. Human beings experienced evil as soon as they were born: “the feebleness of the infant’s limb is innocent, not the infant’s mind” (p.9). For the philosopher, God make one pure but our mind can be corrupted that our environment as soon as he is born. Then, adolescence is considered the most sinful period of life. Not following the rules and experiencing sins can help him to discover who he is and find his path. In this precise example, sins made Augustine improve his goodness because he confronted the evil by making these bad experiences good. In other words, Augustine demonstrates that his free-will made him a victim of evil. By making errors, he could confront life and build his personality.
Mengzi believes that human beings are born good. Humans must develop or cultivate this innate good to attain the most of it. Mengzi differentiates people by this particular development; one would not be good if he does not cultivate his original nature. However, he believes that humans were born with “innate ethical” dispositions (p.89). Mengzi called the first one “benevolence” which is the heart of the compassion” (p.89). Benevolence is manifested in the affection one has himself as well as compassion for other people. Per Confucians, one should have more concern for relatives rather than strangers. A benevolent person will only recognize the pain that someone suffers. The second innate ethical disposition is “righteousness” which is a disposition to “disdain” (p.89). Indeed, one can be ashamed to do or would disdain to accept. Mengzi does not argue that “that human beings are innately good; he claims that human nature is innately good” (p.89). The feeling of respect is propriety, the rituals in society. The feeling of approval and disapproval is wisdom. In other words, prudence and understanding are keys. Evil comes from the environment that one lives. Mengzi is aware of the presence of evil in the world. He asserts that evil is due to the environment in which good is evolving. Human beings are then responsible for evil. Evil is a consequence of our behavior and not the cause. The example of the pear tree illustrates well his point because the tree is “good” nature but the fruits cannot be good if the environment is not favorable. Every man needs to cultivate his nature to be good. One becomes good because he wants to be good.
Augustine and Mengzi both agree that goodness is part of human nature when one is born, he is ultimately good. Augustine believes that human beings are born good and evil comes later when one is living is life. Mengzi has the same point of view: human beings birth with “the four innate ethical dispositions” that he must cultivate his life to remain virtuous. They also agree that evil corrupt the good to make it bad. Augustine claims that evil will corrupt the good and will change people. Mengzi thinks that evil is not in our nature but a bad environment can affect individuals.
Per Augustine, evil is typically associated with the bad. Evil is the privation and the corruption of the good. He explains that “corruption does not harm and unless it diminishes the good, no harm would be done” (p.124) Things that are immune to corruption would then be superior. But can things that lose their good can become better? He says that “I no longer wished individual things to be better because I considered the totality. Yet with a sounder judgment I held that all things taken together are better than superior things by themselves” (p.125). A world that had never been touched by evil would be a good place, but not the best place possible. Evil facilitated the development of virtues that are only able to exist where evil flourishes for a time. Mengzi does not argue that “that human beings are innately good; he claims that human nature is innately good” (p.89). Human nature is good, on this view, because becoming a good person is the result of developing our innate tendencies toward benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. Each human “inherently” are considered virtuous. Every man needs to cultivate his nature to be good. One becomes good because he wants to be good: “human can fail to do good” (p.90). It is in on our wish to decide if one wants to be good or not and our actions define ourselves. Mengzi, despite Augustine, thinks that evil needs to be overwhelmed and is a result of our behaviors in society. “Reflection” helps people focus and appreciate their self-righteousness. Our innate capacities defined our fully formed virtues, but our behavior needs to confront evil. To conclude, one is born virtuous, but experiences can impact our goodness and make us different and less moral. In other words, one needs to be disciplined to remain good.