The Problem of Evil in Baruch de Spinoza

Abstract

In the following article we research the reflections of the Jewish philosopher Baruch de Spinoza on the notion of evil (of huge importance for religion and politics). We focalize, on the one hand, on the peculiar epistolary exchange with William de Blyenbergh, who lays out the subject specifically, bringing up a dispute that intellectually demands Spinoza to justify the ethical implications of his ontology. And, on the other hand, we delve into the systematization of his proposals about the issue through an analysis of the Ethics.

With this writing, in the first place, we dive into the philosophy of an author with a major influence in the contemporary philosophical work; in second place, we demonstrate how the problem of evil and its resolution turned out to be an important focal point that articulates the Dutch thinker’s absolute ontology most relevant thesis; in third place, we analyse how the query about evil makes the abandonment by the philosopher, from a logic of substance to logic of modal relations, evident; and, at last, we explicitly state the objective criterion of Spinoza’s ethics.