A meaning found, or lent?
On the axis: The meaning of suffering · suffering's place in an order
Does suffering carry a meaning, set within an order that gives it a place, or do we lend it one after the fact, to make it bearable?
Justification
In the Theodicy, evil and suffering are not gratuitous scandals: God permits them because they are necessary conditions of a greater good in the economy of the best of worlds. Suffering thus fits into an overall finality that redeems it, a clearly fecund rather than abolitionist position.
Theodicy, §10-25 (metaphysical, physical and moral evil) · Theodicy, §118-119 (partial evil contributes to the good of the whole)
Justification
Nothing happens without a , not even creation: if God brought this world into being rather than another among the infinity of possible worlds he conceives, it is because his wisdom and goodness led him to choose the one that realizes the maximum of perfection with the least means, the best of all possible worlds. Evil is therefore not a refutation but a calculated part: God permits it where it conditions a greater good of the whole. This optimism answers the scandal of evil by turning an objection against providence into a consequence of divine perfection, the reasoning would mock in Candide through Pangloss.
It follows from the supreme perfection of God that in producing the universe he chose the best possible plan.Monadology, §55; Theodicy
Theodicy, §8-10 and §225 (the best of all possible worlds) · Discourse on Metaphysics, §3 (God does everything in the most perfect way)
Justification
Evil is not a positive reality that God would have produced, but a privation, a limitation inherent in every finite creature (metaphysical evil), from which follow suffering (physical evil) and fault (moral evil). God does not will evil, he only permits it when it is the condition of a greater good in the economy of the whole. This is the theodicy, the word Leibniz coins to justify God against the argument from evil: he turns the objection around by showing that a world with no evil at all would be less perfect than ours, and so unworthy of a wise creator. The position is resolutely justificatory rather than tragic or rebellious.
Theodicy
Justification
For Nietzsche suffering is a condition of growth: what does not kill me makes me stronger, and the discipline of great suffering has produced every elevation of humanity. He explicitly despises moralities that make the abolition of suffering the supreme goal.
What does not kill me makes me stronger.Twilight of the Idols, "Maxims and Arrows", §8
Beyond Good and Evil, §225 · Twilight of the Idols, "Maxims and Arrows", §8 · The Gay Science, §338
Justification
From onward, Nietzsche conceives the ground of reality as painful chaos, without providence or pre-established harmony: this is tragic thought. But against 's resigned pessimism, he turns it into the occasion for a Dionysian affirmation, hence a tragic but not extreme position.
The Birth of Tragedy · The Gay Science, §370
Anchors: Leibniz · Nietzsche · Freud
leads to: Tonality of reality · The problem of evil