{"title":"Evil And The Problem Of Impermanence In Medieval Japanese Philosophy","authors":"Y. Nagasawa","doi":"10.24204/ejpr.2022.3908","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The problem of evil is widely considered a problem only for traditional Western monotheists who believe that there is an omnipotent and morally perfect God. I argue, however, that the problem of evil, more specifically a variant of the problem of evil which I call the ‘problem of impermanence’, arises even for those adhering to the philosophical and religious traditions of the East. I analyse and assess various responses to the problem of impermanence found in medieval Japanese literature. I argue that the only response that is potentially satisfactory requires supernaturalism. I conclude, therefore, that the problem of impermanence is a unique problem posing a greater challenge to naturalists than to supernaturalists.","PeriodicalId":43251,"journal":{"name":"European Journal for Philosophy of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal for Philosophy of Religion","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.2022.3908","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"PHILOSOPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract. The problem of evil is widely considered a problem only for traditional Western monotheists who believe that there is an omnipotent and morally perfect God. I argue, however, that the problem of evil, more specifically a variant of the problem of evil which I call the ‘problem of impermanence’, arises even for those adhering to the philosophical and religious traditions of the East. I analyse and assess various responses to the problem of impermanence found in medieval Japanese literature. I argue that the only response that is potentially satisfactory requires supernaturalism. I conclude, therefore, that the problem of impermanence is a unique problem posing a greater challenge to naturalists than to supernaturalists.
期刊介绍:
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion (EJPR) is a peer-reviewed international journal devoted to the problems of the philosophy of religion. EJPR has been founded with the aim of fostering the development of philosophy of religion in Europe and elsewhere.