Abstract

TELLEZ MAQUEO, David Ezequiel. The justification of the presence of evil in the world from Augustine's Aesthetics. Tópicos (México) [online]. 2016, n.51, pp.191-226. ISSN 0188-6649.  https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v0i0.745.

The possibility of a philosophical reconciliation between God as an absolute principle of goodness and evil in the present reality through its various manifestations (poverty, war, disease, ignorance, etc.), has been a constant concern in the History of Western thought. If God exists, how can it be that there is evil in the world? To give a satisfactory rational response, different answers have been proposed. But Augustine of Hippo represents one of the first dominant responses of Western History so that the knowledge of his position concerning this issue is worthy of being analized. Thus, the aim of these lines is threefold: (1) to define which is the aesthetic solution of Augustine to the problem of evil, (2) to point out some-well known critiques to his position in the twentieth century, (3) to remark that the Augustinian solution, being not utterly satisfactory, can still be the basis for a theodicy that is able to armonize the existence of God and Evil in the world, having previously assessed the different critic positions made by his critics.

Keywords : Evil; Augustinian Philosophy; Aesthetics; Medieval Philosophy.