Lecture 9: Evil Dr. Ann T. Orlando 13 November 2008

Biblical Approach to Evil Natural Evil – Suffering and difficulties are teachers – God’s response to Job: there is no answer that man can understand Moral Evil – Result of man’s freedom to choose – Proclivity to evil and original sin

Background: The Key Question How can there be a good, omnipotent creator God and evil in world Basic formulation by Epicureans – Either God is good and not omnipotent or God is omnipotent and not good – Their result: God(s) are neither good nor omnipotent. God does not care about cosmos

Gnostic Solution Two gods – One good spiritual god – Evil creator god Mankind is aligned with one or the other Some affinity for Platonism Manichaeism included this solution to evil

Plotinus ( AD) Alexandrian philosopher, considered himself a Platonist – Contemporary of Origen and Mani – Subsequently referred to as a ‘Platonist’; – Term Neoplatonism an invention of 19 th C Developed a metaphysics of the One – Good spiritual creator God – Simple, self-caused and cause of all else Problem: Then how can there be evil – Solution evil is the absence of a good that should be there – Evil does not have an independent existence Ethics based on soul’s return to the One – Spiritual progression in steps to the One – Sin is turning away from approaching the One

Augustine Evil the key question for Augustine; it is what prevents him from being happy Starts his turn away from Catholicism over this question (Confessions Book III) Return begins with the solution found in the books of the Platonists (Confessions Book VII) Recall “On Free Choice of the Will” begins with the question of evil.

Augustine and Human Distorted Desires Human proclivity to sin is a result of original sin Without grace, man always will fall into sin Charity (grace, gift of the Holy Spirit) is the only virtue To be discussed more next week, justification

Medieval Response Basically Augustine Example: Aquinas in ST Ia addresses evil in general – Evil has no existence in reality – Evil cannot exist without the presence of some good Note: Church still follows Augustine in this, see definition of evil in CCC glossary

John Calvin Basically Augustine – But emphasis on man’s fallen state – Evil is a direct result of man’s now nearly completely corrupt nature Institutes II.3

Early Modern Wrestling with Evil: Pierre Bayle ( ) Pierre Bayle wrote one of the first modern Dictionaries His Dictionary was the most widely read book in the 18 th C; having enormous influence on philosophes. – Voltaire’s Dictionary – Diderot’s Encyclopedia Bayle was pessimistic about a solution to the theodicy problem – Raised objection to all solutions, including Manichees (2 gods), Plotinus (evil does not exist) and Epicurean (God does not exist) Pessimistic about human nature; more evil than good in the world Usually considered one of the first early modern skeptics

Gottfried Leibniz ( ) Born into a prominent Lutheran family Studied Church Fathers and ancient history and scholastic theology Desperately wanted to reconcile Lutheran and Catholic theologies through philosophy Made original and brilliant contributions to – Mathematics (calculus) – Physics – Logic – German jurisprudence – Philosophy – Metaphysics

Some Principles of Leibniz’s Philosophy Opposed to materialism and atheism (revised Epicureanism of Hobbes) God always acts for the best – Thus we must live in the best world Nothing happens without a reason or cause – Although we may not know the reason, and see only the effect All substances are interconnected, even if we cannot know those connections – These connections, past present and future, are contained within each substance – Each substance thus is a ‘mirror’ of the entire universe The universe was created in and remains in harmony Body and mind each follows their own laws, but are synchronized through universal harmony – Body subject to efficient causes – Mind to final causes Mind (soul) has innate ideas based on universal harmony Note, only about half of Leibniz’s works have been published; the only book he published during his lifetime was Theodicy

Leibniz and Theodicy Written as a reply to Bayle in 1710 How can this be the best world when there is evil, when people are unhappy Leibniz answer,: earthly happiness of every individual may not be the right way to judge ‘best’ God creates limited things which taken in aggregate reflect God’s perfection. – But this implies that individual things may suffer some evil or suffering due to their limitations – Limitations as a type of privation

Alexander Pope and Optimism Cease then, nor order imperfection name: Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee. Submit. In this, or any other sphere, Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear: Safe in the hand of one disposing pow'r, Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good. And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, 'Whatever is, is right.'

Lisbon Earthquake and Voltaire Crushing earthquake on All Saints Day, 1755 – Resulting fires and tsunami destroy most of Lisbon Raises profoundly the question of natural evil and human suffering Voltaire writes his poem to refute Leibniz and Pope, using the Lisbon earthquake suffering as his primary example See Rousseau reply to Voltaire, -letters.htm

The Shoah Human moral evil on an unprecedented scale An event in human history that has been documented and reported in detail How could this happen in the most ‘enlightened’ and scientific country in Europe? Either ‘proof’ that God does not exist, or that the Enlightenment is a false philosophy, or both

Albert Camus ( ) Born in North Africa Wrote doctoral thesis on Augustine and Neoplatonism Fought in French resistance against Nazis Evil exists, but God does not

The Plague Evil is real, God is not Main character, a doctor (atheist), narrates the story as an objective observer On of key figures is a priest, Augustinian scholar Pivotal moment: death of a child – Neither religion nor science can relieve pain Near end, doctor and mother stare out the window and see…nothing Hero of story continually asks, without answer from doctor, ‘how can I be a saint without God?’

John Hick ( ) Conscientious objector during WWII in Britain Studies philosophy after the War, especially Kant Concerned with real as opposed to counterfeit religious experiences (Faith and Knowledge) – Ultimate Divine cannot be known in the world – Valid religious experience is determined by long-term effect on believer Both God and evil exist

Evil and the God of Love Detailed examination of Augustine on evil and the impact of Augustine’s thought – Aquinas – Calvin – Leibniz Given the reality of evil, a questioning of the privation model Hick Suggests an ‘Irenaean” approach – Man always learning and moving forward Read his criticism of Augustine, Chapter VIII

Assignments Augustine, Confessions VII Aquinas ST Ia Calvin, Institutes II.3 Leibniz, Summary of the Controversy Reduced to Formal Argument, in Theodicy, trans. E.M. Huggard, La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1985, pp Voltaire, Poem on the Lisbon Disaster, in The Enlightenment, A Sourcebook and Reader, Ed. Paul Hyland, London: Routledge, 2003, pp Hick, Evil and the God of Love, Chapter VIII