Alex Owensby History of Evil Timeline

Augustinian tradition (354-430): The common way to interpret evil before the
enlightenment period was to interpret bad events as payback for sin. Evil
exits to make people more reliant on God.
Alfonso X (1221-1284) He was the King of Castille in the 13th century. He
believed that God created a disordered universe and that if he had been
there to help create it, it would have been better. This was blasphemous and
his reign was ridden with misfortune. The story of his life became a morality
tale that served as a warning.
Martin Luther: (1483-1546) An Augustinian monk who began the tradition of
clerical marriage (allowing a clergy man to marry and have a family) between
a couple religions. Augustine was very influential in Luthers religious
writings. Evil (suffering) drives us toward God (peace)
Ren Descartes, the father of modern philosophy (1596-1650): Belief that
people, things, and the earth can not be trusted because evil is in these
things.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Opposed to the traditional ways of proving Gods
existence. He looked into discovering truths, but claimed it was impossible
because such established truths would require other truths to back them up.
The first truth cannot be found.
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) He took up Alfonso Xs cause and thought he was
the first enlightenment hero. He thought that Christianity did people a
disservice by teaching them about the punishments of the sinners in the
past. Either evil must be explained according to human reason or defied by
the human spirit.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716): Coined the term "Theodicy" which
defended the views of Bayle (Evil, whether natural or moral, shows
contradictions of Christian beliefs of God.) He believed that evil was a
metaphysical necessity, the world does not need any divine intervention to
keep it going.
The enlightenment (1685-1815): a movement of intellectuals starting in the
late 17th-century Western Europe. The emphasis on reason and individualism
beat out tradition. It reformed society, challenging ideas of tradition and faith.
It promoted the scientific method and therefore scientific thought, skepticism,
and intellectual interchange.
Voltaire (1694-1778): Based on the enlightenment age, defied the excuse for
evil and protested the injustice of the human condition. Voltaire distrusted
democracy, because he thought all of the people were unintelligent. It was
only and educated, enlightened monarch that could bring about good
change. However, his philosophy changed after time with the new conclusion:
"It is up to us to cultivate our garden."
Hume (1711-1776): He rejected excuse of evil and protested injustice of the
human condition. He told that desire governed human behavior more than
reason, "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." He
argued humans only have knowledge of things through directly experience.
Alex Owensby History of Evil Timeline

Jean -Jacques Rousseau (1712-1788) Believed evil had no meaning and we

can do no more than worry about the evils for which we are responsible." He
told that morals overcome our natural state.
Immanuel Kant (german philosopher 1724-1804): He believed that reason
was the foundation for human morality and that we must assume
responsibility of evil in our lives.
Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) Defied excuse of evil and protested injustice of
the human condition. He is known for his erotic works, which joined
philosophy with pornography. This brought about sexual fantasies with
violence and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. He promoted extreme
freedom, ignoring morality, religion or law.
Lisbon earthquake of 1755: It hit on an important church holiday and because
it destroyed almost every popular church in the area, anxiety and confusion
spread. Theologians thought the religious cause and message, was a
manifestation of divine judgment.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831): He viewed the role of philosophy
was to eliminate contingency. He believed that reality can be put into
different rational categories.
Schopenhauer (1788-1860) He rejected the excuse of evil and protested the
injustice of the human condition. He claimed that our world always has a
dissatisfied will. It will always seek satisfaction but never attain it. Influenced
by Eastern philosophy, the influence of "transcendental ideality, he was led
to choose atheism.
Nietzsche (1844-1900): Believed the human spirit will be attacked by evil and
that human bring it upon themselves, by their own actions. This idea was
that people could live their life in a wrong way.
Freud (1856-1939): Did not explain evil or even admit it existed. He believed
that purity and goodness does not exist. We want a secure world like the fairy
tales of the youth. It is impossible to find a satisfactory solution to the
problem of evil in ones life.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) Coined the phrase "the banality of evil."
Described the phenomenon of Eichmann of whether evil is radical or simply a
function of thoughtlessness. She believed the tendency of people to obey
orders and submit to conformity.
WW1 (1914-1918) The war that brought about old-fashioned imperialism and
early modern technology. The bad things that occur in war remains outside of
our normal thoughts.
Auschwitz Holocaust (1940-1945): concentration camp that most people
declare as evil. The intention manslaughter showed the horrendous side
humans could exhibit. The memory and now story grew in the imagination
over time. It acquired significance in relation to the web of beliefs in which it
occurred.
WW2 (1939 to 1945) A war with two opposing military alliances: the Allies
and the Axis. Great Britain and America had a philosophy that had a culture
obsessed either by epistemology and methodology or the group-speak of
left-wing ideology. This made the old philosophy dominantly logical.
Alex Owensby History of Evil Timeline

Daniel Goldhagen (1959-present) He writes that during the Holocaust many

killers were ordinary people (Germans), who antisemitic (prejudice against
Jews), because of the culture they had been raised in. This means they were
acculturated "ready and willing" to execute the Nazi's genocidal plans.