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Ghose, The Life Divine, Book II, Chapter XIV, for a modern
exposition in this context.), and is popular in the Western world
through the doctrines of Christian Science . The Augustinian solution that evil is a privation
of essence or being (Footnote 90: Augustine, The Confessions
of Saint Augustine, pp. 153, 154, et passim.) is likewise basically
an illusionist theory of evil. For to say that everything
that is, insofar as it is, is good, is to say no evil actually exists,
which is precisely the allegation that evil has only an illusory
existence. [[344]]
By way of objection to this solution: the solution is selfcontradictory.
First, because it is an indisputable fact that some
evil exists; at least the evil of our thinking evil to exist when it
does not---so that the proposition that all evil is illusory is thus
false for the very reason that it is true, which is selfcontradictory.
Second, to put the same point differently: if all
evil is really illusory, then why is this offered as an explanation
at all? If no evil exists, then it does not require explanation. If
it does exist, then it is not illusory, in which case the original
hypothesis is contravened.
We may state our criticism more positively by saying that
illusionism merely moves the problem of evil to another context:
for the explanation of the origin and power of the illusion
of evil is exactly as problematical as the explanation of evil itself.
Evil then possesses at least an illusory reality, just as the
mirage on the road is real as a mirage. And just as the mirage is
not explained by calling it a mirage, neither is evil explained by
calling it an illusion.
Since illusionism thus reduces to self-contradiction, no solution
to our problem is possible in terms of a denial that evil exists.
Instrumentalism: the denial of evil’s ultimate character as
evil, and the assertion that it is an instrument for good.---
According to this particular approach to the problem, evil is de-