Evil and its Place in the Metaphysical View of the Word According to Avicenna

Abstract

The concept of evil is one that is often portrayed as chaotic, sudden, and a threat to the good. How it operates is generally characterized as puzzling, creating three conflicting interpretations: between those who assign blame for evil to human (will in the belief that the issue is related to a moral problem which has nothing to do with religion or science); those who blame nature and circumstances (in the belief that a material interpretation does away with metaphysical explanations); and those who assign the whole issue to divine will (excusing themselves from the burden of seeking the laws of evil's operation in nature and upon humanity). This paper uses Avicenna's notion of the meaning of evil, the rationale for its existence, and the part of science, morality, religion, to explore and critique current concepts of the evil and the tension between them.