From the philosophical angle, evil is the most puzzling and disturbing issue for human intellect. Evil is a major issue that greatly affects people’s lives. This was delivered by Prof. Dr. Joko Siswanto citing Coln Canellan’s word in his work Why Does Evil Exist? A Philosophical Study of the Contemporary Presentation of the Question. Joko Siswanto conveys it in his inaugural lecture as professor of the Faculty of Philosophy of UGM, which took place in the Senate Hall on Monday (11/7).
Joko added that evil is a challenge for philosophy and theology. Philosophy is challenged to provide solutions that can be accepted by common sense. In the development of social sciences, crime/evil gains wider definition that is not solely limited to violations of the law or against the limits of public tolerance. Crime is not only measured by the functional imperatives of social institution as a moral criterion, but also by the loss caused to society as a whole, it is not even related to the violation of human rights. "This is later studied in the social sciences of Victology discipline (the study of crime victims or crime sufferers)," said Joko.
On that occasion, Joko said the problem of evil/crime from the standpoint of philosophy is rooted in four basic issues. First, the existence of God as creator of all things. Secondly, the existence of evil as the tragedy of reality. Third, the existence of a free human being as well as the agent of responsibility. Fourth, the dynamic existence of nature with its laws and development. "Arising from the fourth issue, then comes the fundamental question of evil: from which the origin of evil? Whether the crime is transcendent and/or immanent dimensional? Is crime objective, relative, or relational?" the man born at Sukoharjo, October 4, 1962 added.
According to Joko, to search for solutions of the evil problems, one of the tasks of philosophy is to dismantle the reasoning morbidity that underlies certain arguments. Philosophy prepared the way to a better understanding with positive reasons. As a critical science, in developing the materials criteria for understanding and solving the problem of evil, philosophy cannot limit itself dogmatically on the premises of a particular tradition or on a inter disciplines formal discussion.
Although in philosophical thinking there are a variety of attitudes, conception, and possession of the evil, from the optimistic modern form to the metaphysical pessimism form; facilities and ways are always open to the ruler, or at least reduce the crime/evil.
Joko Siswanto said in the philosophy literature it is known various types of crimes, but most people only generally distinguish two types of crimes, namely moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is a form of crime that occurs because of and on human responsibility. Natural crime is a crime that occurs outside of human responsibility. "But in general, the philosophy understanding the evil in two dimensions, namely theoretical and existential dimensions," he said.
Quoting Albert Camus, Joko Siswanto explains the source or root of evil in the world is related with the absurd nature of human life, everything starts from a world ruled by contradictions, antinomy, fear or powerlessness. The absurd world is born of the confrontation between the human call and the absurd silence of the world. The irrationality, human longing, and the absurdity arise from the meeting of the three. "The three things are the drama of human life that is experienced by human as an existence," Joko explained.
Related to the question of whether a crime is objective, relative, or relational, according to Joko, the answer is mostly found in the work of Camus The Plague. From this work it can be concluded that the crime is more objective, that it is a symbol of epidemic plague that are categorized as "natural evil" types upon all people in a variety of social stratification without any exception.
Narrated in the novel, the suffering from deaths caused by plague is experienced by many people, everyone, without any exception, whether he is a Father, Jesuit (Paneloux), volunteers or Saints without God (Tarrou), janitor (Castel), or innocent little children.