not will physical evil for its own sake, but he may be said to have willed it indirectly for the perfection of the universe. But why did God create this particular world where evils and suffering are present? In willing this universe, God did not will the evil contained in it, because he cannot love what is opposite to goodness, which is evil. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that if evil were a positive entity or something created, it would be ascribed to God as a creator, but evil is not a positive thing and therefore not created, but is a privation, and exists as a privation. Therefore evil cannot be willed even by

a privative sense. Furthermore, negation itself has no evil, character, but evil is rather a privation and thus we are in the position of saying that the material subject of evil is good. A thing is called evil for lacking perfection it ought to have, and the drive to accomplish good is essential to every cause, natural and voluntary alike. Evil therefore is not directly sought after, but is a deprivation of good, and privation is not a nature or real essence, but rather a negation in a subject.

The meaning of evil, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, depends on the meaning of good, as an opposite is known from the opposed. Thus, evil signifies an absence of good. Even in morality good and evil are different, because good in itself is our goal, while evil is the failure to seek the required goal; everybody acts for some good goal. Evil as a privative result, naturally destroys good. It does not belong to the perfection of the universe nor to the order of the universe. It also denotes the lack of good, but not every absence of good is an evil, because it

Some topics in this essay:
Thomas Aquinas, st thomas aquinas, st thomas, thomas aquinas, St Thomas, evil privation, evil positive, negation privation, perfection universe, mere negation privation, universe god, evil exist, saying evil, mere negation,