GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

A THEORY OP GOOD OR VALUE 45!
the desire to preserve the ethical virtue of the character
of a deity who is conceived to be omnipotent and to have
created die universe. Even, however, if we admit that evil
is unreal or is an illusion, we do not achieve the desired
result. For, if evil is unreal, then error 19 real. There is
no doubt that we think that we suffer pain and that we
think that men do us evil. We think also that the pain
which we suffer and the evil which is done to us are real.
Either this belief of ours is a mistake, or it is not. If it
is not, pain and evil are real. If it is, then the error we
make in thinking them to be real is a real error (if it were
an unreal error, then we should not really be making a
mistake in thinking pain and evil to be real, and pain and
evil would be real). Therefore, the character of the deity
is such as to permit us to labour under a real error which,
if He chose, He could remove. Nevertheless, He does not
remove it but allows us to be deceived as to die real nature
of pain and evil. But an omnipotent being has not the
need, a benevolent being has not the wish to deceive.
I conclude, then, that, since the view 6f evil as being
in some sense unreal does not have the desired consequence
of vindicating the moral character of a creative deity who
is conceived to be omnipotent, the main incentive for
holding
it is removed.
That Evil Though Real is Indefinable. What, then,
are the arguments for the view that evil is, like good, a
real and independent principle, which is also unanalysable
and indefinable?
The best way to realize the unanalysable and indefinable
character of evil is to consider the attempts which
have been made to define it in terms of some other char-
acter or combination of characters.
(i) Evil might, for example, be defined as what one ought
to try to avoid. This substitutes the indefinable "ought"
for Ac indefinable "evil". But the notion of "evil" is far
wider than what we ought to try to avoid. We can only
try to avoid the things we know. But there is no reason to