Evil as being? Interpretation of Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec

Abstract

The problem of evil has always been in the sphere of human interests. Evil is something that touches human nature, something that is hard to cope with for man not only cognitively, but also existentially. Evil, inscribed in the history of human existence as contingent being, becomes the subject of philosophical, theological and para-scientific explanations. Attempts to explain the presence of evil aimed firstly at showing that evil is only an apparent thing, and secondly at showing that evil is something real, a form of being opposed to good.  Among philosophers referring to the dualistic interpretation, we encounter two groups. Some philosophers, in favor of the duality of good and evil emphasize its temporality where the struggle between good and evil ends with the victory of good. Others, however, stand in an extreme position, proclaiming eternal presence and indestructibility in the world of good and evil. So there are two eternal substances, good and evil.  The existence of them is governed by two separate principles of good and evil. However, these interpretations do not  explain the problem of evil rationally.The presented theories led Krąpiec to present a different attitude, treating evil as a lack of being, as a relative "non-existence", a "disease" of being, without any nature, and thus unknowable by itself. Although evil is not a state of being, there are grounds, not in evil itself, but in a being in which there is a lack, to distinguish different forms of evil, different philosophical concepts, and to determine the "causes" of evil. However, these theories, treating evil as a lack of being, are not the subject of this article. Despite many different attempts to explain evil philosophically, the problem of the meaning of evil still remains unresolved.  It remains a mystery to the philosopher. We can find the final explanation in the perspective of religion, which determines the meaning and significance of suffering, whereas philosophy tries to answer the question: what is evil and why it exists.