Book contents
- Animal Suffering and the Darwinian Problem of Evil
- Animal Suffering and the Darwinian Problem of Evil
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Facing the Darwinian Problem of Evil
- 2 Darwinian Evil and Anti-Theistic Arguments
- 3 Ways around the Problem
- 4 Making a “Case for God” (a Causa Dei)
- 5 Animal Suffering and the Fall
- 6 Narrow Is the Way of World Making
- 7 God-Justifying Beauty
- 8 Suffering “For No Reason”
- 9 Darwinian Kenōsis and “Divine Selection”
- 10 Animals in Heaven
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - God-Justifying Beauty
Aesthetic Theodicy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2020
- Animal Suffering and the Darwinian Problem of Evil
- Animal Suffering and the Darwinian Problem of Evil
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Facing the Darwinian Problem of Evil
- 2 Darwinian Evil and Anti-Theistic Arguments
- 3 Ways around the Problem
- 4 Making a “Case for God” (a Causa Dei)
- 5 Animal Suffering and the Fall
- 6 Narrow Is the Way of World Making
- 7 God-Justifying Beauty
- 8 Suffering “For No Reason”
- 9 Darwinian Kenōsis and “Divine Selection”
- 10 Animals in Heaven
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In this chapter the author considers Aesthetic Theodicy, according to which selectedforms of cosmic beauty are valuable enough to justify natural evils suffered by animals. He begins by defending the use of aesthetic values in theodicy on the ground that aesthetic goods often have moral value. He then examines the classical versions of Aesthetic Theodicy, in which one appeals to cosmic harmony, balance, and overall fittingness of all parts into a beautiful and morally valuable whole. This approach fails to account well enough for the extreme disharmony, imbalance, and dysteleology in the Darwinian World, as unveiled by science. Next, he examines post-classical versions, in which one appeals to “major beauty” (so Whitehead) created by cosmic conflict and disintegrative elements of nature. He examines the specific appeal to the tragic moral beauty of evolution, particularly in predation. He argues that these approaches identify morally valuable forms of beauty, but they do not contain scenarios in which God defeats tragic evils for the victims. Nor can the appeal to tragedy account for the existence of Darwinian horrors. He concludes that perhaps sacred canonical sources can help.
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- Information
- Animal Suffering and the Darwinian Problem of Evil , pp. 137 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020