The talk is based around John Stuart Mill’s essay on ‘Nature’. The essay was written 1850-1858, before the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859 (though the essay wasn’t actually published until 1874). Mill questions whether it is appropriate for humans to aim to follow nature. He draws attention to the less pleasant aspects of nature (which were also commented upon by Darwin himself). This bears upon the wider issue of the problem of evil. Two varieties of evil are generally recognised: (1) moral evil; and (2) natural evil. The second is relevant here. For example, nature has given us life, mind, body, consciousness and so on but also kills us off, allowing only a very short lifespan of not much more than 100 years. This is an infinitesimal proportion of the age of the universe, thought to be around 13 billion years plus. Taken in the context of Darwinian evolution, I am suggesting that natural evil can be viewed as having much commonality with the environmental challenge factors that drive natural selection. If this conjecture is justified, then natural evil can be viewed as having a function in the evolutionary process. That doesn’t make it any less unpleasant. Mill’s reasoning can then be reconsidered as to its applicability in our own time.
Darwin, C.R. (1966) The origin of species. Edited by Beer, G. Oxford: OUP.
Darwin, C.R. (1860) Letter to Asa Gray , 22 May, in Darwin, F. (ed) (1887) The life and letters of Charles Darwin. London: John Murray, vol. II, pp310-312.
Mill, J.S. (1874) ‘Nature’ in: Three essays on religion. 2nd edn. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, pp3-65.