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Philosophy 102: Introduction to Philosophical
Inquiry
Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Problem of Evil"
Abstract: The death of an innocent child
is seen to be an inescapable objection to God's goodness.
- Why does Ivan think that children are innocent and adults
are not? Why does he think we can love children when they are
close, but we can only love our neighbor abstractly?
- Does the General deserve to be shot for turning his hounds
upon the child? Explain an answer from a religious point of view.
- What does Ivan mean when he says, "I hasten to give back
my entrance ticket."
- List five or six possible explanations which are sometimes
taken to account for the death of an innocent child in a universe
created by God.
- What does Alyosha mean when he says to Ivan, "That is rebellion"?
| 1. Why does Ivan think that children are innocent and adults
are not? Why does he think we can love children when they are
close, but we can only love our neighbor abstractly? |
- Innocence, for Ivan, has to do with the intention of an
act rather than the outcome of an act. The child is innocent
because the child did not intend to hurt the hound. An adult
can intentionally do harm and so cannot be experientially innocent.
- We can love our neighbor abstractly in the sense that
all people have the same nature, but once we come to know
the foibles of our neighbor, we lose sight of human nature.
People in general share no disagreeable qualities; specific
persons have specific disagreeable qualities which can
distract us from loving them. Children have not yet developed
the adult idiosyncrasies such as mistrust, greed, and cruelty.
Dostoevsky seems to see naivety as innocence, and the
consciousness of adults as awareness of right and wrong.
| 2. Does the General deserve to be shot for turning his hounds
upon the child? Explain an answer from a religious point of view. |
- "You have heard that it was said, "An eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, Do
not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the
right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would
sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well;
and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would
borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall
love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you,
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so
that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He
makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:38:45)
- "If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that
she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall
surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes
on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any
harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn,
wound for wound, stripe for stripe." Exodus 21:22-25.
| 3. What does Ivan mean when he says, "I hasten to give back
my entrance ticket." |
- Ivan says he accepts God simply. He apparently believes
in a classical Euclidian creation: there is an underlying order
and meaning to life with an eternal harmony with regularity and law.
- It's the world, itself, created by God that he cannot accept.
- Ivan doesn't accept the world, and he states he will take
his own life. He reveals the feeling, "Stop the world,
I want to get off."
| 4. List five or six possible explanations which are sometimes
taken to account for the death of an innocent child in a universe
created by God. |
- The problem is described by Ivan in the example of the
child torn apart by the hounds. How can we account for the
suffering of an innocent child?
- The following accounts are suggested in the reading
although some are merely hints.
- Eternal harmony: Suffering and evil will
vanish like a mirage at the end of the world. Just
as seeing the individual colors of the rainbow does
not indicate to us that all colors taken together
produce white, so likewise seeing the individual
events of live does not indicate to us that all events
taken together produce the whole picture of the
universe.
- Consciousness: "Good" and "evil"
are polar concepts— without sin we cannot have known
good and evil. (In Christianity, the eating of the apple
represents the origin of consciousness.) Without the
possibility to do harm, people could not be conscious of
what is good—people would not be people, but something
else.
- Trust Alone: The suffering of the innocent child
is simply beyond human understanding. I.e., it's
absurd.
- Freedom: Given paradise, people preferred freedom.
Its our freedom which makes us people and not things. Evil
is the price paid for free choice. How do you know what a
murderer is until you are one? (Refutation: How do you know
what a chairs is until you are one?)
- Future Harmony: Evil events will produce something
better in the future for others (e.g., a "necessary
evil" or the ends justify the means.) My suffering will
produce a better world for my children and others in history.
The world is getting better and better— we are overcoming
evil before the final redemption at the end of the world.
- Paying for father's crimes: We all share
responsibility for what has happened in the past.
"The sins of the father are visited upon the sons."
(Source of the quotation results from a violation of the second
Commandment: worship not a graven image. "For I the Lord
thy God am a jealous God and visit the sins of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth generation."
Cf., Deuteronomy 5:8-10 and Exodus 20:5.)
- Saving the world from a future evil: The child
would have grown up to sin (perhaps be a mass murderer).
By his death by the hounds, the world is saved from his
future evil deeds.
- Suffering is necessary for the price of truth:
No truth can be won without overcoming evil is some form.
| 5. What does Alyosha mean when he says to Ivan, "That is rebellion"? |
- Alyosha is suggesting that Ivan has forgotten that there
is a God who could forgive the guilt resulting from the death
of the child.
- For Ivan no just God would permit a crime like the
suffering of an innocent child. Ivan believes God is just, but he
rejects the world God has created.
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