o The Philosophy of Good and Evil

THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL

The concept of evil poses a complex epistemic question that draws its roots from the theory of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. It is a major section of theism and philosophy of religion.

Both theists and atheists concede that evil engulfs the world in darkness. They agree that evil, if it is meant to be everything within the vast spectrum of badness, exists. Theists believe in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent God. Contrastingly, atheists expostulate that evil continues to roam around in spite of the existence of The Creator, ergo, a contradiction comes to light. Throughout their venture into evincing that the presence of evil doesn’t obliterate God’s existence and in order to sort out The Logical Problem of Evil, philosophers put forward many theodicies. One of the prominent theodicies was developed by Alvin Plantinga, an American analytic philosopher, in God, Freedom & Evil (1977). It is a distinct argument known as The Free Will Defense. It implies that one is deemed free as long as one is equally at liberty of performing an action or giving it up.

A world containing creatures who are sometimes significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all (…) The fact that these free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God’s omnipotence nor against his goodness; for he could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by excising the possibility of moral good. (Plantinga 1974, pp. 166167) 13

13 Beebe, James R., Logical Problem of Evil, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://iep.utm.edu/evil-log/

On this matter, freedom indicates the aptitude of doing both good and evil of one’s own volition. Hence, it is moral evil which the Free Will Defense addresses. This latter also reveals that polarity is fundamental, for darkness is entailed to appreciate light.

Plato, Aristotle, Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, and many other major Greek philosophers and theologians proclaimed that people can choose to oppose the ontological foundation of the cosmos because of the freedom they have been granted. Therefore, evil appears when a rational being decides to counteract his creator.

Nowadays, it is apparent how thoroughly societies have changed in view of what is ethically right or wrong. From cultural aspects to ideologies, there has been a shift in the definition of general concepts, making us ponder the question of how valid the philosophy of good and evil is.

Each and every individual forges a personal set of criteria to delineate what evil stands for and describe the forms it takes. It could be a point of view, a personality type, a party, a country, or another person’s own perception of good. Consequently, the collective consciousness encompasses uncountable versions of ‘evil’.

Figure 9: The Nature of Evil

Source : https://www.wondriumdaily.com/iblis-and-god-the-nature-of-evil-in-islamictradition/ttps://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdubainews.online%2Fimage%2Fwhat-does-the-nature-of-evilmean&psig=AOvVaw1hijlMfu8KDa9D7QiFK8t6&ust=1649758914935000&source=images&cd =vfe&ved=0CAsQjhxqFwoTCKiG4oPli_cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

We approve and we disapprove because we cannot do otherwise. Can we help feeling pain when the fire burns us? Can we help sympathizing with our friends?

Edward Westermarck (1912 [1908]: 19)

Why should our nastiness be the baggage of an apish past and our kindness uniquely human? Why should we not seek continuity with other animals for our “noble” traits as well?

Stephen Jay Gould (1980: 261)

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956