Abstract

Traditional responses to the problem of evil may be classed as ‘logical’ responses, insofar as they aim to show that God’s existence is logically compatible with evil and suffering. In this paper I discuss what might be called a non-logical or ‘aporetic’ response. According to the aporetic response, the problem of evil appears to us as intractable, but it does so only because of the limitedness of human minds. I argue on independent grounds that human minds are limited in a specific way: our experience of value is, in an important respect, aspectually shaped (aspectual shape is a term is used by Tim Crane, John Searle, and others in the philosophy of perception). This thesis is useful for understanding various syndromes in the way we relate to normative areas like ethics, aesthetics, politics or religion. It can also be used to provide the framework for a novel aporetic theodicy.