Preservation of Justice as the Power to Rightness Essay

Preservation of Justice as the Power to Rightness - Essay Example In the fall off the devil, Anselm says the angels that did not fall are free, and yet cannot sin. This proves that to Anselm, freedom construes the right, and ability to act in the right reason, or meaning having the right intention that cannot lead to sin. In this paper I will review the validity of Anselm’s argument in the statement that â€Å"after Satan fell, the angels that did not fall are free and yet cannot sin.† First I will evaluate Anselm’s view relating to the nature of God, secondly, I will review Anselm’s argument concerning, being and the essence of being. This will then lead to the relation between ‘being,’ and preservation of good and evil, evaluating how a being is regarded to be good or evil as related to act and intention of such a being. Finally I will evaluate the dilemma concerning freedom of choice, which will be essential in proving the hypothesis above. In Anselm's argument on free will, God, angels and humans are con sidered as rational beings able make viable decisions. Anselm view justice as the ability to will what one ought to will, meaning they possessed justice in willing what they ought to will, and sine they were rational beings, the good angles had the potential to sin, but refrained form it by choice. The essence of any being is to obtained justice by wiling what they ought to will; just as the good angels refrained from sin. ... er He has, and all other things have something only from him, and just as they have from themselves only nothing, so they have from him only something† (Anselm, 216). Anselm argues that everything has its essence through God, and nothing exists devoid of his power and will. This affirms the importance of ‘will’ in any action. God having been the first being to will implies that any subsequent rational beings have to share this quality. God being the absolute rational being, could only have created other rational beings in his own image, meaning that as God has freedom to will, only so could other rational beings be created. God has imparted the freedom to choose in all rational beings. Secondly, Anselm elaborates on the will and freedom of God to create and preserve any being. God is responsible for being, and what ‘is’ as He conserves in existence what’ is’. Every being is, because it was created by God, and He conserves it in existence. The theme of conservation in this case is responsible for the state of everything which is, without which a being cannot be. â€Å"But if you consider existing things: when they pass to not being, God does not cause them not to be†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. But also being cannot remain how it was made except by his conserving† (Anselm, 217). It is through conservation that a being is, without which the being would return to not being. Ekenberg (17) further elaborates this notion by arguing that God is only a cause of what is, not of ‘what is not.’ God according to Anselm cannot make something not to be, but by removing his conserving over the being, such a being automatically returns where it belonged to; in not being. Therefore, God’s will is positive and not meant to destroy; though God has freedom to preserve that which He wills.