Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that evil is a privation of goodness

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • evil is a distinct entity from goodness
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • if the above is true, then it is not that evil is a privation of goodness
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Augustine and Aquinas demonstrate that evil lacks independent ontological substance, existing only as corruption within a good substrate.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.A distinct entity requires positive being, but evil is defined entirely by what it lacks, not by any intrinsic properties it possesses.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Darkness is not a distinct entity from light but its absence; similarly, evil is constituted by the absence of due goodness, not separate existence.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Neoplatonic metaphysics, from Plotinus onward, establishes that all being qua being is good, leaving evil no positive ontological category to occupy.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If evil were a distinct entity, it would possess being, but possessing being entails goodness, which contradicts evil's essential character as corruption of good.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.