Friday, May 27, 2022

Metaphysical Optimism

The past 2,500 years (rounded) of western culture summarized by Pouwel Slurink in 'Can Evolution Explain Evil?' (2020):
 

"In this sense, Darwinism puts an end to the ‘metaphysical optimism’ of Parmenides, Pythagoras, Plato, Aquinas, Leibniz, Voltaire, Hegel ... For Platonism, evil comes from a domain in which the perfection of the world has not penetrated or is not properly understood. For Christianity, it results from bad decisions. For Enlightenment thinkers, it result from bad thinking. For Darwinism, ‘evil’ is a somewhat subjective, umbrella term for the many forms of misery that organisms undergo because they are the product of a partly inherently cruel chance process."

P.S. Mount Sarmiento, Chile in the distance, and a sight of HMS Beagle. Drawing made in 1834 by Conrad Martens (1801-1878).. Source: here.

No comments:

Post a Comment