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Josiah Royce (1855–1916) was an objective idealist philosopher and the main proponent of American idealism at the turn of the twentieth century. Royce sets out his theodicy in “The Problem of Job” (published in 1898). In it, he argues that individuals “truly are one with God, part of his life.” Consequently, “When you suffer, your […]
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The English poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) is regarded as one of the leading Victorian poets for his innovations with prosody (the use of syllables, meter, rhyme, and the pattern of words in poetry). Prone to depression and struggles with religious doubt, Hopkins’ melancholy found expression in his ‘sonnets of desolation.’ Among them is
Gerard Hopkins, “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord” Read More »
The German philologist, philosopher, and cultural critic Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) is famous for declaring that “God is dead,” an expression of the secularist consequences unleashed by the Enlightenment. Though he was unsparing in his attacks on theism, Nietzsche shared at least one concern with the religious and metaphysical systems he held in such contempt: the
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What is the problem of evil? The sterile, academic language of philosophy is often used to explain it, but one is hard-pressed to find a better description of the visceral nature of the problem of evil than that provided by the great Russian novelist Fodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) in The Bothers Karamazov. In a chapter titled “Rebellion,”
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The English utilitarian and Member of Parliament John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was one of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism. Though known mostly for his work in political philosophy and political economy, his interests spanned a wide variety of subjects, including the intersection of science and theism. During Mill’s lifetime, scientific knowledge
John Stuart Mill, …Sir Hamilton’s Philosophy Read More »
Man’s understanding of his origins was revolutionized with the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, by renowned English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). The book presents a body of evidence in support of the claim that the diversity of life on Earth arose from a unique ancestor through the
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The empiricist, atheist German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is best known for his 1818 work, The World as Will and Representation. In it, he responds to the problem of evil by inverting the Augustinian definition of evil as the privation of good. Happiness, Schopenhauer argued, is but the temporary cessation of suffering, which is the default condition
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German idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) developed a system of logic around the concept of aufhebung. Aufhebung is the noun form of the German verb aufheben, which means “to keep,” “to cancel,” and “to pick up”. The tension between these senses is perhaps best captured in the English word sublation, a term that describes the
Hegel, “The Philosophical History of the World” Read More »
The poetry of the esteemed English Romantic poet John Keats (1795–1821) had been in publication for only a few years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five. Insight into several of his most well-known poems can be found in letters Keats wrote to his brother and his brother’s spouse in 1819. In them,
John Keats, Letters to George and Georgiana Keats Read More »
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775–1854) was one of the most influential German philosophers of the early 19th century. In “Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom and Related Matters,” Schelling investigates a number of matters related to the problem of evil, including the following: man’s freedom to choose between good and evil suggests that
Schelling, “Investigations into…Human Freedom” Read More »