There isn’t a single, fixed number of “evils”; different traditions slice the idea in different ways, so the answer depends on which framework you look at.

Core ways people count “evils”

  • Many philosophers of religion talk about two main evils :
    • Natural evil (suffering from things like disease, disasters, accidents).
    • Moral evil (suffering caused by human choices like murder, cruelty, injustice).
  • Some philosophical discussions add further distinctions, for example:
    • Metaphysical evil (limitations built into finite existence, like vulnerability or mortality).
    • Empirical evil (concrete pains, illnesses, and harms we actually experience).
  • Other modern writers group evil by motive or function , e.g. four types:
    • Demonic evil (harm for its own sake).
    • Instrumental evil (harm done as a means to some other goal).
    • Idealistic evil (harm done in the name of some “higher” cause).
    • Further proposed categories like “exuberant” or “purposeful” evil.

Why there’s no final number

  • Everyday and forum discussions often point out that you can split categories of evil almost endlessly (for example, breaking “hatred” into many different “-isms” like racism or sexism), so any list is partly a choice about how finely to divide things.
  • Because of this, some people say there are “two basic evils” (natural and moral), some say “four kinds” , and others argue there are infinitely many forms or degrees of evil, depending on how specific you get.

A simple takeaway

  • For a quick answer, a common philosophical view is: two basic kinds of evil (natural and moral), with many subtypes and refinements under each.
  • But as soon as you move into more detailed or more psychological descriptions, the number of “evils” expands and stops being countable in any strict way.

So “how many evils are there?” is less a question with a single number and more a doorway into which theory of evil you want to use.