4. Saint Augustine (354AD - 430AD)

1. Saint Augustine proclaimed that evil or sin is a product of free will. This means that it is the free will of an individual that makes him indulge into sins, evils and crimes. A society imposes certain limits to the exercise of free will of a person which therefore results in regulation of the society. If every person is allowed to practice his will freely there would be no society and only chaos.
2. Saint Augustine further proclaims that pride is a cardinal sin which is also the cause of many other evil acts that a person indulges in. It makes him unaware of the consequences of his actions which may be harmful for others.
3. Saint Augustine agreed with the prevailing ideas that the universe contains two basic principles:
   • The principle of light and goodness
   • And the principle of darkness and evil
4. How to introspect or to look into the self was on the one of the biggest difficulties that were encountered by the philosophers and thinkers of that time. St. Augustine provided a simple solution to it by saying that we can look at external objects through our sense organs, but we can look in by reflection. Reflection here refers to looking at and understanding ideas and thoughts and finding solutions to problems through the association of ideas within the mind. Because of this stress by St. Augustine on looking inwards and his method of looking inwards, he is usually regarded as the first introspective psychologist. Introspective psychologists therefore are those psychologists who encourage looking into the mind to find solutions to the problems rather that observing outwardly things and trying to find solutions to problems by using the sensory organs.
5. Another great contribution of St. Augustine is his explanation of consciousness which in his view is constantly flowing. He said tat consciousness flows constantly in the form of a stream and it is up to us how we look into the stream to get ideas and generate solutions to our problems.