Variations of Theodicy: Sacrifice and rationality in History

Abstract

In the present work we attempt to delve deeper into a fundamental philosophical problem, namely the problematic justification of evil in History. We will do so by taking the foundation of certain approaches of Hegelianism. The aim is to understand how theodicy, transferred from a strictly theological field to the sphere of human history, entails the application of a rationalising device that, equally, involves an exaltation of History as a sacrifice, thus resulting in the incompatibility of the so-called «perspective of History», to Hegel’s understanding, with the happiness of specific and suffering men. This discursive operation, inasmuch as it fulfils the role of giving meaning to that which is not there, must also be equally understood, by the same token, as mystifying poetisation and as a justifying narrative of the unjustifiable. In a similar fashion, we will try to grasp how this theodicy-device has been introduced in some very common and defining historical-political discourses on Modernity. We will also have the opportunity to ascertain if this device also works inside discourses on the legitimacy of capitalism advanced from the most extreme versions of economic liberalism.