The Old Polish Literature and the Evil

Abstract

: The article discusses the old Polish ways of explaining evil. The first
part briefly presents the philosophical theories struggling with the problem of its
existence and origin: Aristotelianism, Platonism, Stoicism and Epicureanism. It
was found that the reception of these views can be traced in selected texts of the old
Polish literature. Therefore, in the second and third parts of the article, appropriate
analyses were carried out on the basis of the literary material provided by Elegia IV 3
and the epigram O żywocie ludzkim (I 101) by Jan Kochanowski, as well as Tobiasz
wyzwolony and Adverbia moralia by Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski. They focus
primarily on the problem of suffering leading to the question of the essence of God,
who, being the omnipotent Creator of the world, is also responsible for the presence
of evil in it. Using the Epicurean theory of indifferent deities, Kochanowski presents,
close to deism, the concept of the Creator acting for Himself and from heaven viewing
His work with the Artist’s eye; Lubomirski, on the other hand, stands on the side of
theism and assumes that God is the Creator of good, and that evil only allows the
wise man to achieve perfection with His help.