Abstract

This dissertation examines the phenomenon of fear as a primary context for the problem of evil. It claims that whereas the locution "evil" is an interpretation of life's troubling experiences, fear is the primary experience on which this interpretation builds. Thus, the problem of evil has to be seen in the light of the fears which inform our interpretations. ;In reducing the problem of evil to the primary context of experience the author argues that the challenges of life do not issue from metaphysical sources, but arise in human consciousness. This shifts the focus from causes, divine or otherwise, to the conditions of experience and meaning. In other words, the world only "comes to light" in consciousness. ;With this important tenet of Husserlian phenomenology, the dissertation analyzes the basic structures of experience on the one hand, and interpretation on the other. It views the range of experience as: the self, the world, and a possible transphenomenal world; and the range of interpretation as the necessity for identity, power, and enduring significance. It maintains that the intentional correlation of self and world is the necessary condition for experience and interpretation, and that the dialectical struggle between identity and difference is the catalyst for interpretation. The one makes experience and meaning possible, while the other extends the borders of the possible. Thus, meaning does not only consist in "givens" articulated by reference, but "discoverables" made known in use. ;This latter assessment is the product of Ludwig Wittgenstein's later philosophy which emphasizes the importance of internal relations, as well as the analogical procedures by which relations are made. Both Husserl and Wittgenstein acknowledge that logical grammar holds the "givens" and "discoverables" in creative tension. ;A grammar of fear is therefore both a description of the conditions and the modalization of fear. The one deals with the ongoing relations between self and world while the other deals with the ways in which the relationships are approached. One of the ways of dealing with these relationships is to attribute ultimate significance--evil and goodness--to the threats and securities we experience.