Finally, I argue Swinburne’s solution to the Problem of Evil is persuasive. First, I begin with Swinburne’s views on the kinds of evils. According to him, there are two kinds of evil: moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil refers to all evil caused deliberately by humans doing what they ought not to do and also the evil constituted by such deliberate actions or negligent failure
Plato & Aristotle on harmful humor Humor isn’t always light-hearted and fun. Plato and Aristotle both discuss the ways people have vices, how the vices relate to humor, and how to live in greater harmony. They use different concepts, Plato talks about how vices arise from disrupting the balance of the soul and through self ignorance, while Aristotle discusses the balance of behaving morally and the vices attached to extreme behavior. In the Republic: Book IV Plato talks about what he believes are the three parts of the soul, reason, spirit, and appetite. Reason is the part that guides the other parts of the soul, it analysis and rationalizes options, and determines the best overall choice.
According to Socrates, the difference between a “true” lie and a lie in words is that a lie in words is apparent while a true lie is real. When a true lie is concerned, a person’s whole character is oriented to a world that doesn’t exist. The character’s soul can be changed for evil. Meanwhile, a lie in words is the noble lie. Socrates says, “But surely, as I was saying just now, it would be most correct to say that it is truly speaking a lie-- the ignorance in the soul of the one to whom the lie was told.
Moreover, the role of the mask is signified as a false interceptor of perception and translator of emotion. Similarly, the notion of the mask’s motive is demonstrated through the continued implementation of personification, in order to clarify the mask’s identity as an abstract entity, in the sentence, “It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,”. The mask is also depicted as an entity forced upon a specific populace as a form of humiliation, as exemplified through Dunbar’s use of words like “debt” and “human guile” being operated in conjunction. These words communicate the believe that selfish intelligence is responsible for the creation of a “debt” or contract, which binds the community into unpleasant situation they are unsatisfied with. Dunbar also incorporates a cynical tone through the application of negatively connotated words such as, “lies”, “hides”, “shades”, “debt”, “guile”, “torn” and “bleeding”, that represent a disagreeable side of our species.
On receiving this point of view based on Justice Plato went further to decipher Polemarchus’ idea. He referred to the analogy of the friend and sword, along with many other analogies countering in what he believes to be a ridiculous claim Polemarchus made. Each claim Polemarchus made to further convey his opinion Socrates made a counter analogy. Each showing the wrong doers and/or right doers. Current time Justice has not been followed by these standards.
In other words, the best way of changing things is to point out their absurdity and satirise them. According to Brilli (1967), Paulson (1967) and Hodgart (1969), satire’s main aim is to reveal reality for what it really is and to show the evil that operates in it, by taking a moral stand, exercising critical judgments or blaming the target of its action, who should be ridiculed and demeaned. In fact, the satirist always criticises his or her subjects in a mandatory way. However, behind a pars destruens, the refutable part of the theory, it is hidden a pars construens, the new positive thought arising from the first stage, following a specific pattern: “A is bad” implies that “B is good”, where A is the specular opposite of B and the object of the satirical expression. Focusing on how women are seen and treated in society, William Hogarth, an English painter and a great pictorial satirist of the 18th century, exposes in his work the lack of rights that women have.
Author John Bradshaw once said, “Evil is a source of moral intelligence in the sense that we need to learn from our shadow, from our dark side, in order to be good”. The dark side can be a flaw in human nature, which could be seen out of one’s control. Each piece explores the dark side of human nature in different ways. Shakespeare’s Macbeth portrays hunger of power, which leads one to do immoral acts. Cormac McCarthy’s, The Road, illustrates the struggle for survival in a world that is coming to an end, which will unconditionally make one do anything for survival.
In other words, Locke maintains that good actions tend to cause pleasure while bad action tends to cause pain. For Locke, morality is the law of God, and God supports his laws with sanctions. God also will punish those who violate the moral law and reward those who keep them. Immanuel Kant: Immanuel Kant argued that moral requirements are based on a standard of rationality he dubbed the “Categorical Imperative.” Immorality thus involves
1. The Suffering and the Mystery of Evil “Man suffers whenever he experiences any kind of evil.” The concept of suffering and evil are closely connected. Pope John Paul II addresses this relationship between suffering and evil in his apostolic letter as follows: Man suffers on account of evil, which is certain lack, limitation or distortion of good. We could say that man suffers because of a good in which he does not share, from which in a certain sense he is cut off, or of which he has deprived himself. He particularly suffers when he an ought-in the normal order of things-to have share in this good and does not have it.
Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’ is a story immensely useful in painting a moral lesson. It is a representation of the potential consequences of having an unbalanced personality, which can be best read through the principles of the psychologist Sigmund Freud and his theories on the id, ego and superego. The id, which is the primitive part of our personality, operates on the pleasure principle and is entirely selfish –demanding instant gratification of its needs. It is manifested in ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’ through Lord Henry, who ‘represent[s] to [Dorian] all the sins [he has] never had the courage to commit.’ The Superego, by complete contrast, represents the personalities internalised sense of right and wrong and is based on the morality principle. It is embodied in the character of Basil Hallward, who symbolises the novels only moral figure who is destroyed at the end of the story for presenting a threat to the pleasure principle of the id.