The notion of sin in Abelard’s Ethics

Abstract

The present article is concerned with some ethical ideas of Peter Abelard that he sets out in his treatise “Ethica or Scito te ipsum”. This paper investigates Abelard’s concept of sin and the relation among the concepts of sin, intention, will, vice, consent and contempt. The article highlights the features of Abelard’s interpretation of the concept of intention in comparison with the interpretation of the school of Laon. The paper also shows the in­terdependence of some ethical ideas of Abelard and ethical theses from the Letters of Eloise. The present article also substantiates that the sin for Abelard is contempt for God because of agreement with what a person should not agree with. Moreover, sin is not a bad deed, vice or evil will. Sin is a non-good intention. Despite the fact that Abelard borrows the concept of intention from the theology of the school of Laon, his interpreta­tion is unique and is included in his general concept of sin, which differs both from the ideas of the school of Laon and from the concept of sin by Aurelius Augustine. For Abelard, sin is a personal intention, so it cannot be transmitted. Therefore, Abelard is ready to conclude that a person does not take the guilt from Adam, he takes only the pun­ishment. Despite the fact that the hypothesis about the interdependence of the ideas of Eloise and the later theories of Abelard is not self-evident, and the concept of sin in the letters of Eloise comes close to the meaning of Abelard’s concept of vice, nevertheless, there are common places in their ideas, for example, the idea that the sin is a consequence of a certain state of mind, that this state of mind should be punished, as well as other theses that we tried to present in this article.