< Chapter 4: The Problem of Evil
a pair of articles appeared in the Königsberg News and Advertiser: Reinhardt, O., & Oldroyd, D. R. (1983). Kant’s theory of earthquakes and volcanic action. Annals of Science, 40(3), 247–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033798300200221
His very first published work: Lu-Adler, H. (2018). Between du Châtelet’s Leibniz exegesis and Kant’s early philosophy: A study of their responses to the vis viva controversy. History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis, 21(1), 177–194. https://doi.org/10.30965/26664275-02101009
Some Kant enthusiasts pinpoint the beginning of this turn: Larsen, S. E. (2006). The Lisbon earthquake and the scientific turn in Kant’s philosophy. European Review, 14(3), 359–367. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1062798706000366
in a later monograph on the subject, Kant wrote: Schonfeld, M. (2018). Kant’s research on earthquakes. In J. Wuerth (Ed.), The Cambridge Kant Lexicon. Cambridge University Press. https://www.academia.edu/30756431/Kant_s_research_on_earthquakes
constrained by our senses and shaped by our minds [footnote}: This is very much how we think of our perception of the world today, one upshot being that we’re subject to sensory and cognitive illusions, as described in Chapter 1.
says contemporary philosopher Mara van der Lugt: van der Lugt, M. (2021). Dark matters: Pessimism and the problem of suffering, 318–325. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206622/dark-matters
Some still do, some of them in theological terms: Carlisle, C. (2023). To end on a high note [Review of Hope without Optimism, by T. Eagleton]. TLS. https://www.the-tls.co.uk/religion/theology/to-end-on-a-high-note
Human beings are wired to look for patterns and purpose: Mattson, M. P. (2014). Superior pattern processing is the essence of the evolved human brain. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00265
‘Only one man ever understood me…’: O’Toole, G. (2017, April 25). Quote origin: Only one man ever understood me, and he did not understand me either. Quote Investigator. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/04/25/understand/
This is particularly true of Hegel’s philosophy of history: Hegel was notoriously poorly spoken and repetitious, and since he didn’t write down his philosophy of history, it’s been (re)constructed from his lecture notes and those taken by his students. Fortunately it’s been more lucidly set out by modern philosophers: see, for example, Evans, L. (2018, December). Hegel on history. Philosophy Now, 129. https://philosophynow.org/issues/129/Hegel_on_History
you might argue that the excesses of the French monarchy: Bourke, R. (2022). Hegel and the French revolution. History of European Ideas, 49(4), 757–768. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2022.2095754
what Mara van der Lugt calls ‘value-oriented’ optimism: van der Lugt, M. (2021). Dark matters: Pessimism and the problem of suffering, 68. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206622/dark-matters
Many were eventually implemented: Finn, N. (2018, November 19). On earth, as in heaven: The utopianism of Edward Bellamy. CounterPunch. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/19/on-earth-as-in-heaven-the-utopianism-of-edward-bellamy/
This effect was most pronounced in southeastern Asia: Sutton, M. (2016, June 17). Sulfate aerosols and the summer that wasn’t. Chemistry World. https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/sulfate-aerosols-and-the-summer-that-wasnt/1010160.article
inspired Byron to write the apocalyptic poem Darkness: Byron. (1816). Darkness. In The Prisoner of Chillon, and Other Poems (pp. 27–31). John Murray. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=dul1.ark:/13960/t9r22576n&view=1up&seq=9
it’s now seen as prescient in several ways: Murphy, O. (2020, May 5). The Last Man by Mary Shelley is a prophecy of life in a global pandemic. News and Opinion, The University of Sydney. https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/05/05/mary-shelley-s-the-last-man-is-a-prophecy-of-life-in-a-global-pa.html
Conrad von Hötzendorf, Franz Ferdinand’s military chief of staff, was spoiling for a fight: Gady, F.-S. (2014, June 12). The scandalous love affair that started World War I. The National Interest.https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-scandalous-love-affair-started-world-war-i-10646
the Oxford historian Herbert Fisher wrote: Fisher, H. A. L. (1936). A history of Europe (p. v). Edward Arnold. https://archive.org/details/historyofeurope0000fish
If you went along with Fisher, Toynbee wrote: O’Toole, G. (2015, September 16). Quote origin: History is just one damn thing after another. Quote Investigator. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/09/16/history/
Don’t change anything [footnote]: Physicists have debated whether this really should be a rule, but since no one is very clear about whether time travel is even theoretically possible, the debate is more science-fictional than scientific anyway.
writes literary scholar Catherine Gallagher: Gallagher, C. (2010). Telling it like it wasn’t. Pacific Coast Philology, 45, 12–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41413518, eventually expanded into a book of the same title: Gallagher, C. (2018). Telling it like it wasn’t: The counterfactual imagination in history and fiction. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226512556.001.0001
as the historian Dan Snow has pointed out: Snow, D. (2018, June 28). Was World War One inevitable without Franz Ferdinand’s assassination? History Hit. https://www.historyhit.com/was-world-war-one-inevitable/
The bomb has nearly been launched for reasons including the misidentification of geese, the Moon and meteors as incoming missiles; a bear mistaken for a saboteur at an Air Force base in Duluth; errant Soviet submarines and American spy planes during the Cuban Missile Crisis; power outages and communication failures caused by solar flares and thunderstorms; faulty alarm systems, in one case caused by a defective 46-cent microchip; a ‘war game’ simulation loaded into a live system; and a drunken order to bomb North Korea given by President Richard Nixon.
Bear, microchip, simulation: Gorvett, Z. (2020, August 10). The nuclear mistakes that nearly caused World War Three. BBC Future. https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20200807-the-nuclear-mistakes-that-could-have-ended-civilisation
Moon, bear, submarines, spy planes, thunderstorm, solar flare, Nixon, alarm systems, simulation: Wikipedia contributors. (2016). Nuclear close calls. In Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_close_calls
Simulation, microchip: Wright, D. (2016, June 6). How could a failed computer chip lead to nuclear war? The Equation, Union of Concerned Scientists. https://blog.ucs.org/david-wright/how-could-a-failed-computer-chip-lead-to-nuclear-war/
Geese, meteors, Moon, microchip: Marshall, S., & Toma, A. (2012, May 23). The close calls: How false alarms triggered fears of nuclear war. Blog, Council for a Livable World. https://livableworld.org/the-close-calls-how-false-alarms-triggered-fears-of-nuclear-war/
‘The main computer wouldn’t ask me,’ said Petrov later: Lebedev, A. (2004, May 21). The man who saved the world finally recognized. MosNews.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20040610193448/http://www.mosnews.com/feature/2004/05/21/petrov.shtml
‘We are left alone, without excuse,’ wrote Sartre in 1946: Sartre, J.-P. (1946). Existentialism is a humanism [Lecture]. In W. Kaufman (Ed.), Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre. Meridian Publishing Company. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm
the form was then in its infancy and most were created long after the event: Badsey, S. (2008). ‘If it had happened otherwise’ – First World War exceptionalism in counterfactual history. History of Warfare, 48, 351–368. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004166585.i-383.90
In 2015, 42 per cent of respondents to a New York Times magazine poll said they would: Bennett, L. (2015, October 23). In praise of the New York Times Magazine’s ‘baby Hitler’ poll. Slate. https://slate.com/culture/2015/10/baby-hitler-poll-in-the-new-york-times-magazine-media-trolling-at-its-best.html
There are many fictional alternate histories [footnote]: There’s a convention that works intended as fictional entertainment are known as ‘alternate’ histories, while those intended as intellectual exercises are ‘counterfactual’. In practice, they can be hard to differentiate.
Gavriel Rosenfeld, editor of The Counterfactual History Review, argues: Rosenfeld, G. (2002). Why do we ask ‘what if?’ Reflections on the function of alternate history. History and Theory, 41(4), 90–103. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3590670
the distinguished historian Richard Evans beefed: Evans, R. (2014, March 27). Altered pasts: Counterfactuals in history, by Richard J. Evans. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/altered-pasts-counterfactuals-in-history-by-richard-j-evans/2012202.article
Evans, R. J. (2014, March 13). ‘What if’ is a waste of time. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/13/counterfactual-history-what-if-waste-of-time
Catherine Gallagher suggests it was the sudden demise of ‘the-world-order-as-we-knew-it’: Gallagher, C. (2010). Telling it like it wasn’t. Pacific Coast Philology, 45, 12–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41413518
‘The darkest timeline’ went on to become a rolling meme: Adam. (2017). The darkest timeline. In Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-darkest-timeline
Gibson had been working on a near-future novel, but, he says: Gibson, W. (2020, January 21). William Gibson on writing sci-fi as the world takes a dystopian dive (S. Paul-Choudhury, Interviewer) [Interview]. In Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/william-gibson-agency/
his reworked novel included history as he felt it shouldhave been. [footnote]: In fact, Gibson’s 2017 is an alternate reality within the novel, too: its ‘real’ timeline is one established by its sibling novel, The Peripheral. This kind of matryoshka-doll tricksiness is a hallmark of the genre: The Garden of Forking Paths and The Man in the High Castle both toy with multiple alternatives.