Teh EVIL!
Don't you wish they'd tell us?
Thanks for the advice on the last entry, I'll follow some of it up.
Currently 600 words short on Functionalism and Qualia due tomorrow...
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Figured I'd post this and see what people thought. I'm pretty sur ethis was an A.
Saint Augustine looked at the Problem of Evil from a different vantage than most thinkers. His view centred on God as the source of Goodness, but may not have solved the Problem as satisfactorily as he may have wished.
The Problem of Evil arises when one attempts to put an omnipotent, omniscient, infinitely benevolent entity into the same arena as the known world, which contains death and famine and war and all sorts of Evil. As Evil is not always caused by intelligent action the Problem is sometimes also called the Problem of Suffering. Given these attributes it seems impossible to imagine that God would not act in order to avert Suffering for his creations. God’s role as creator of the entire set-up adds further difficulties. If God really is all-powerful and all-good then why did Evil appear in his creation at all? Was it an accident? In which case, doesn’t that prove he is not all-powerful? Was it an act from an outside Evil power, proving again that God is not all-powerful? Or was it an intended element of the creation, in which case we must find that God is not all-good.
It is common to find the Problem developed into a more specific form by those defending God. By referring to ‘unjustified evil’ there is leeway to allow arguments that advance theories of a Greater Good. Without this specificity, a blanket denial of Evil existing in the same though-space as the defined entity is irrefutable evidence of that entity’s non-existence given Evil is in the world. This has been a great problem for monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Judaism. Various thinkers have come up with ways to reconcile the existence of Evil with the common understanding of God.
Saint Augustine’s own interpretation of the issue is well known. Augustine’s theory draws on the influence of Plato’s Theory of Ideal Forms. From this he claims that Good is the ultimate goodness, a perfect being, identified with God. Therefore it follows that the world that God created, and all its inhabitants, cannot themselves be truly perfect or good because matter is a poor reflection of Ideal Forms. Given this lack of perfection it is inevitable, according to Augustine, that Evil will arise. He takes a unique view that Evil is not a force in itself. Most other attempts to resolve the Problem of Evil take evil to be an opposing force to Good, acting against it to undermine God’s authority. Augustine takes the opposite view, that Evil is merely the lack of Goodness, in the same manner that Darkness is really only the lack of Light. One wouldn’t discuss the power of Darkness working to constrain Light (except perhaps metaphorically) and in the same way one shouldn’t talk of Evil trying to overwhelm Good.
When he first tackled the problem, Augustine took note of Free Will. He found it self-evident that Free Will existed because it is only he who decides how will act and any punishment for his actions from God shows this. There would be no punishment for actions he hadn’t chosen. But this led him to wonder what it was within him, made by a Good Creator, that had a will that could choose Evil. Even if he accepted the idea of an outside Evil force tempting him (the Devil) Augustine asks where that force came from. Given God as the prime originator, even that Evil must come from God. These thoughts led him to consider every aspect of the universe in a search for Evil and he came away seeing value in it all. Nothing in itself was Evil.
God created everything that exists. If it is true that he is supremely Good than all his creation must be Good also. Once they are not Good they do not exist because Evil is a lack of Good. Things that cannot be corrupted will never grow less Good and things that have no Goodness must cease to exist. When there is no more Good to lose there must be nothing left because anything created is Good. Augustine said it would be ‘Monstrous’ to assert that things which had lost all their Goodness could be made better. Augustine was aware that this seems to imply that all Good things are partially Evil, which sounds contradictory. He notes the example of a man existing being a Good and therefore an Evil man being an Evil Good. He makes the distinction that the man’s existence makes him Good but does not cause his Evil. It is his own actions that show him to be Evil, or lacking Goodness. A lack of harmony among the Good things God has created helps foster this corruption.
Augustine gives us a new and interesting way of looking at Evil without showing why God would allow it. If the lack of Good causes Evil to appear, we end up in exactly the position we began, namely, why would God allow this? It seems to create the same paradox that other solutions try to overcome, that a good being creates something that is Evil and is thus not a Good being. He is aware of this and does refer to his redefined view of evil in trying to account for the potential of Evil in creation. His theory shows that God did not cause Evil to exist through lack of perfection, as a painter who paints flowers doesn’t cause them to be yellow by withholding red. First one colour is painted. If something changes that colour by removing the original, it is not the painter who causes the change. By his explanation Free Will is supposed to be used for the pursuit of Good and any who turn against this are moving into deficient areas of Evil. God is not the cause of Evil’s existence, which means he can remain a Good Entity. However, it does not account for not acting to remove Evil in his authority as an omnipotent force. Neither does it address the role of Suffering that comes from outside humanity’s sphere of influence.
Some other theories that do try to address these issues (and could affect the view Augustine’s Theodicy) include the concept of Punishment. This says that Evil is the punishment for Human’s after the Fall. Because they are inherently sinful, it is right that they should suffer until they are ‘rescued’ back into God’s presence. This implies a force role to Evil, that it has power over humans, and doesn’t mesh well with Augustine. Secondly, there is a theory of Free Will. This is similar to Augustine, in that it says Free Will has allowed humans to choose to act Evilly, even though they shouldn’t. This relies on the assumption that it is more important for God to allow Free Will than for there to be no Evil. Free Will must be a Greater Good. Finally there are two small theories that are similar. One holds that Suffering is a part of forming a human’s soul and the other says that Good becomes worthless if there is no chance of avoiding it, choosing the wrong thing. Both imply that part of striving towards Goodness must involve there being some Evil that one grows away from.
The concept of an omnipotent creator God carries some inherent baggage that has troubled religious thinkers for some time. Augustine looked at Evil in a different way which allowed him to take into account Free Will but did not truly solve the problem of a ‘lazy’ God or non-human caused suffering. Other religious thinkers have thought about those issues and come up with various proposals that could fill the gap.
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Augustine, The Problem of Evil: 1, trans. J. M. Pilkington, 1876
Augustine, The Problem of Evil: 2, trans. J. F. Shaw, 1883
Hakim, Albert B., Historical Introduction To Philosophy, 5th Ed., U.S.A.: Pearson Education Inc., 2006
Thanks for the advice on the last entry, I'll follow some of it up.
Currently 600 words short on Functionalism and Qualia due tomorrow...
--
Figured I'd post this and see what people thought. I'm pretty sur ethis was an A.
Saint Augustine looked at the Problem of Evil from a different vantage than most thinkers. His view centred on God as the source of Goodness, but may not have solved the Problem as satisfactorily as he may have wished.
The Problem of Evil arises when one attempts to put an omnipotent, omniscient, infinitely benevolent entity into the same arena as the known world, which contains death and famine and war and all sorts of Evil. As Evil is not always caused by intelligent action the Problem is sometimes also called the Problem of Suffering. Given these attributes it seems impossible to imagine that God would not act in order to avert Suffering for his creations. God’s role as creator of the entire set-up adds further difficulties. If God really is all-powerful and all-good then why did Evil appear in his creation at all? Was it an accident? In which case, doesn’t that prove he is not all-powerful? Was it an act from an outside Evil power, proving again that God is not all-powerful? Or was it an intended element of the creation, in which case we must find that God is not all-good.
It is common to find the Problem developed into a more specific form by those defending God. By referring to ‘unjustified evil’ there is leeway to allow arguments that advance theories of a Greater Good. Without this specificity, a blanket denial of Evil existing in the same though-space as the defined entity is irrefutable evidence of that entity’s non-existence given Evil is in the world. This has been a great problem for monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Judaism. Various thinkers have come up with ways to reconcile the existence of Evil with the common understanding of God.
Saint Augustine’s own interpretation of the issue is well known. Augustine’s theory draws on the influence of Plato’s Theory of Ideal Forms. From this he claims that Good is the ultimate goodness, a perfect being, identified with God. Therefore it follows that the world that God created, and all its inhabitants, cannot themselves be truly perfect or good because matter is a poor reflection of Ideal Forms. Given this lack of perfection it is inevitable, according to Augustine, that Evil will arise. He takes a unique view that Evil is not a force in itself. Most other attempts to resolve the Problem of Evil take evil to be an opposing force to Good, acting against it to undermine God’s authority. Augustine takes the opposite view, that Evil is merely the lack of Goodness, in the same manner that Darkness is really only the lack of Light. One wouldn’t discuss the power of Darkness working to constrain Light (except perhaps metaphorically) and in the same way one shouldn’t talk of Evil trying to overwhelm Good.
When he first tackled the problem, Augustine took note of Free Will. He found it self-evident that Free Will existed because it is only he who decides how will act and any punishment for his actions from God shows this. There would be no punishment for actions he hadn’t chosen. But this led him to wonder what it was within him, made by a Good Creator, that had a will that could choose Evil. Even if he accepted the idea of an outside Evil force tempting him (the Devil) Augustine asks where that force came from. Given God as the prime originator, even that Evil must come from God. These thoughts led him to consider every aspect of the universe in a search for Evil and he came away seeing value in it all. Nothing in itself was Evil.
God created everything that exists. If it is true that he is supremely Good than all his creation must be Good also. Once they are not Good they do not exist because Evil is a lack of Good. Things that cannot be corrupted will never grow less Good and things that have no Goodness must cease to exist. When there is no more Good to lose there must be nothing left because anything created is Good. Augustine said it would be ‘Monstrous’ to assert that things which had lost all their Goodness could be made better. Augustine was aware that this seems to imply that all Good things are partially Evil, which sounds contradictory. He notes the example of a man existing being a Good and therefore an Evil man being an Evil Good. He makes the distinction that the man’s existence makes him Good but does not cause his Evil. It is his own actions that show him to be Evil, or lacking Goodness. A lack of harmony among the Good things God has created helps foster this corruption.
Augustine gives us a new and interesting way of looking at Evil without showing why God would allow it. If the lack of Good causes Evil to appear, we end up in exactly the position we began, namely, why would God allow this? It seems to create the same paradox that other solutions try to overcome, that a good being creates something that is Evil and is thus not a Good being. He is aware of this and does refer to his redefined view of evil in trying to account for the potential of Evil in creation. His theory shows that God did not cause Evil to exist through lack of perfection, as a painter who paints flowers doesn’t cause them to be yellow by withholding red. First one colour is painted. If something changes that colour by removing the original, it is not the painter who causes the change. By his explanation Free Will is supposed to be used for the pursuit of Good and any who turn against this are moving into deficient areas of Evil. God is not the cause of Evil’s existence, which means he can remain a Good Entity. However, it does not account for not acting to remove Evil in his authority as an omnipotent force. Neither does it address the role of Suffering that comes from outside humanity’s sphere of influence.
Some other theories that do try to address these issues (and could affect the view Augustine’s Theodicy) include the concept of Punishment. This says that Evil is the punishment for Human’s after the Fall. Because they are inherently sinful, it is right that they should suffer until they are ‘rescued’ back into God’s presence. This implies a force role to Evil, that it has power over humans, and doesn’t mesh well with Augustine. Secondly, there is a theory of Free Will. This is similar to Augustine, in that it says Free Will has allowed humans to choose to act Evilly, even though they shouldn’t. This relies on the assumption that it is more important for God to allow Free Will than for there to be no Evil. Free Will must be a Greater Good. Finally there are two small theories that are similar. One holds that Suffering is a part of forming a human’s soul and the other says that Good becomes worthless if there is no chance of avoiding it, choosing the wrong thing. Both imply that part of striving towards Goodness must involve there being some Evil that one grows away from.
The concept of an omnipotent creator God carries some inherent baggage that has troubled religious thinkers for some time. Augustine looked at Evil in a different way which allowed him to take into account Free Will but did not truly solve the problem of a ‘lazy’ God or non-human caused suffering. Other religious thinkers have thought about those issues and come up with various proposals that could fill the gap.
--
Augustine, The Problem of Evil: 1, trans. J. M. Pilkington, 1876
Augustine, The Problem of Evil: 2, trans. J. F. Shaw, 1883
Hakim, Albert B., Historical Introduction To Philosophy, 5th Ed., U.S.A.: Pearson Education Inc., 2006