AO Tania Ungerer Cela Sina LasT2101 March 27.2016 The Conundrum of Ei 354-450 Augustinian tradition ia reference to Augustine. Bishop of Hippo in Nozth Affe. Provided the dominant paradigm for interpreting evil. Calamites whether they are acts of nature cor deeds of men, are to be understood as punishment for sin-or a result of cisorer that entered into creation. Purpose of evil was to drive us to repentance and reliance on God, 1252-1284 Alfonso X, king of Castille, Was instuctdin astronomy by Jewish rabbi the king isrepored to have declared, “If ¥ had been of God's counsel atthe Creation, many things would have been ordered better”. This expressed blasphemy for halla millennium, His life became a ‘morality tle that served as a wating 1489. 46 Martin Luther sai, “When men or devils cause us suffering itis the alien work of Gout. Itis to teach us to have patience and peace. No Catholic of the time would object to this explanation, "641 Rene Descartes, the fer of modem pilosophy, cote Median on elf and our place inthe world supposing that mons conto weality and subjects humanity tothe tenor ofilusion He sys “Imagine, the heavens, cath, alr, Fgues, sound. anal extemal things cannot be ‘rated, He also asks what ifthe body an he senses convey the actual state of things to the mind,1646-1716- Leibniz’s Theo rationalized andl defended the traditional view against Bayle’s ‘tack, Moral and natural evils just consequence ofthe imperfection ofall reated things Evil is 41 metaphysical necessity. The universe conforms to general natural las indicates just how well ‘teaton is made. It doesnt require divine intervention to keep working. He says, “God could not hhave done any better than He did’, 1647-1706 Piere Bayle wrote the Dictionary and took up Alfonso’s cause, Bayle though that Alfonso was right. Reality is badly designed. Christianity makes things worse by teaching the torments of he damned. Evil, exposes the contradictions of Christian dogma concerning God. He saysif God is benevolent he must be weak otherwise the world would be better made. He is ‘oninipotent so how can he be benevolent. Bayle made Alfonso “the first Enlightenment hero”. Either evil must be explained according to human reason or defied by the human sprit, 1685-1815 -Enlightenment, European polities. philosophy. science and communications were radically reoriented during the couse ofthe “Tong 18th century” as part of a movement referred to by its participants as the Age of Reason 1712-1778 Rosseau- argued that natural evil should be understood as having no inherent ‘meaning. Nature's purpose isto provide the conditions within which man exercises the freedom ‘o become human. Process that involves conflict and suffering and which is the proper subject of Philosophy and theodicy. Human nature isnot fixed but subject to development means that evil ‘ight have a constructive role to play. Mora evil comes not from the hand of God but is our ‘vn doing, We ean do more than “worry about the evils for which We ae responsible”1724-1804 Kan He argues tht he oly way to onder the experience of evil in our lives isto ‘amine our esponsibility forthe evils we commit. He is hauned by the awareness that amanity is subject testing by an inscrutable wil. oRen experienced asthe ‘vagaries of chance Werhave the esp dese o know how Gil and world fi together but the desire never {lle Providence isl cannot know if we did thn our actos woud inevitably by ‘ermine by our effort to please God and abun evar. Goodness genuine only it done for goodness sake, 1755 Lisbon eanhquake- This exposed Lenz rdicul and discredited he effort to explin patra evi spat of natural scheme. This earthquake shocked western civilization more than ‘any’ event since the all of Rome. Noone could justly the punishment of thousands of vets. 2002- Susan Neiman, published Evi in Modern Though, Director of Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. She says, “the problem of evil i the guiding fee of modem thought”. Se defines «vil as absolute wrongdoing tat leaves no room fr account or expaton, Evil is more than rime, to call an ation evil so suggest that it eannot. The content of whats evil varies fom ‘ge to age Evil threatens ourilty “Te actin the world and to understand it vil is just like Descartes’ demon, it shatters our trust inthe world 1770-1831- Hegel- The sole aim of philosophy he declares in his Lectures om the Pilasophy of ‘Hisiory, isto eliminate the contingent. Eliminating contingency means showing this world to be necessary afer all. isan inevitable dialectic of human aetion in which evil as well as ood pushes history forward,