The secular problem of evil: an essay in analytic existentialism

Something might be true while being harmful and dangerous in the highest degree. Indeed, it might be a basic characteristic of existence that those who would know it completely would perish.

Nietzsche

In the Anglo-American philosophical tradition, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of evil with the purported existence of God. On some versions of the problem, the existence of evil is held to be logically incompatible with the existence of God; on others, it is held to be evidence against the existence of God. On all versions, the philosophical problem posed by the existence of evil begins and ends with a commitment to theism. Reject theism and all that remains of the problem of evil is a practical task of reconciling oneself to a world in which evil exists.¹

While this assessment is common, I believe it is mistaken. The classical (or theological) problem of evil is strictly a problem for theism. The philosophical problem posed by the existence of evil is not. Much as Schopenhauer once suggested, the existence of evil gives rise to a problem that is logically prior to the theological problem, and distinct from the practical one.²

I call this problem the secular problem of evil.

Here is a preliminary outline of the problem. It arises out of a basic empirical fact about human beings, which I will treat as given: human beings are vulnerable. We can be physically compromised. And we can be psychologically broken. Hence, we have basic prudential interests – including important psychological interests – which must be met if we are to be successful.

Now, let us call a world ‘good-enough’ if and only if it is compatible with our unbenighted success. On the one hand, as I will argue:

• (1) Successful human beings are committed to a good-enough world.

On the other hand, there is a claim which everyone should grant: evil exists. With the existence of evil comes a live possibility:

• (2) The actual world is not a good-enough world.

By the ‘actual world’, I mean everything that is – both natural and supernatural – including that which is socially constructed.³ By a ‘successful human being’, I mean a human being who is meeting their...