Confronting the Horror of Natural Evil: An Exchange between Peter Coghlan and Nick Trakakis

Peter Coghlan
School of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
P.Coghlan@patrick.acu.edu.au

Nick Trakakis
Department of Philosophy, Monash University
Clayton, Victoria, Australia
and Centre for Philosophy of Religion,
University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
Nick.Trakakis@arts.monash.edu.au

In this exchange, Peter Coghlan and Nick Trakakis discuss the problem of natural evil in the light of the recent Asian tsunami disaster. The exchange begins with an extract from a newspaper article written by Coghlan on the tsunami, followed by three rounds of replies and counter-replies, and ending with some final comments from Trakakis. While critical of any attempt to show that human life is good overall despite its natural evils, Coghlan argues that instances of natural evil, even horrific ones, can be justified as the unavoidable by-product of a natural system on which human life and culture depends. Trakakis, however, rejects this view, counselling instead a degree of skepticism about our ability to construct a plausible theodicy for horrific evil.