De libero arbitrio is a book by Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

 about the freedom of will

Free will

"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...

. The bishop wrote it in three volumes, one 387-389 in Roma and the other two between 391 and 395 in Africa.

The author started De libero arbitrio as a part of a series of works against Manichaeism

Manichaeism

Manichaeism in Modern Persian Āyin e Māni; ) was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia.Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived...

 and argued also against aspects of Scepticism. Augustine challenged Determinism

Determinism

Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...

in the first volume and investigated the conditions of the existence of god and knowledge in the other two parts.

Literature

• Simon Harrison: Augustine's Way into the Will - The Theological and Philosophical Significance of De libero arbitrio, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006.