The ontological reality of evil in the philosophy of Luigi Pareyson

In this article, I focus on Pareyson's conception of evil, which he understands in terms of concrete ontological reality, rather than regarding it as a sheer moral issue. After outlining Pareyson's existential hermeneutics, which revolves around the concept of person and her constitutive relation with transcendent Being, I also show how Pareyson's discourse on evil is strictly related to his conception of freedom and transcendence. In particular, he defines freedom as 'beginning and choice', that is God's originary choice of Being over nothingness, rather than as the theoretical foundation of Being itself. Moreover, the idea of transcendence is a constant presence in Pareyson's reflection, from the early to the mature period, and therefore even his interpretation of the questions of evil and freedom is to be considered within the theoretical framework set by his notion of transcendence. In conclusion, I demonstrate that, according to Pareyson, not only are evil and freedom inscribed in God's transcendence, but they cannot properly be grasped and understood independently of their deeply religious implications.