Reminiscências do De Libero Arbítrio de Santo Agostinho no De Veritate de Santo Anselmo

Abstract

As part of the results of my post doctoral research program, this paper compares some doctrines on the Augustinian concepts of free will and truth, developed on De libero arbitrio, and those on the same notions, exposed by Anselm of Canterbury, on the Three Treatises on Holy Scripture - De verdate, De libertate arbitrii and De casu Diaboli. Looking for the theoretical foundations of Anselm’s definition of veritas as rectitudo, we’ve found some connections between the postulates of Anselm’s notion of veritas and those analysed by Augustine for the same notion. Three points of convergence between both authors are pointed out in this paper: 1. the foundation of the concept of things being truth in a Principle of Being, which is rational, eternal and per se subsistent. 2. the idea of being-as-duty (an ontological duty), which is grounded on the fact that things received being and truth from that Principle. 3. the idea that all beings may accomplish themselves carrying out their specific end. Doing that, their truth will be achieved as rectitudo. As rational beings can recognize their own end, they perform it using their free will. When this particular kind of beings chooses their own end according to what is their essential truth, truth becomes not only rectitudo but justice. Two important principles that both, Anselm and Augustine, defend, are underlined as two main conclusions of this paper: the crucial convergence between being and duty, and the principle that human judgment is basically axiological, because it is supported by the difference between reason and truth.