Preview

Peter Van Inwagen's Philosophical Response To The Problem Of Evil

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
321 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Peter Van Inwagen's Philosophical Response To The Problem Of Evil
The explanation for why someone or something is evil can not be easily defined, as the answer may vary based on a person’s psychological thought process or intellectual reasoning. The justification of this paper is to discuss Peter Van Inwagen and his philosophical response to the argument from evil, as well as his free will defense theory for the answer to this complication. I will carefully evaluate the two standard objections to his solution and offer my personal opinion of rather or not he offers a successful resolution for this universal problem. So, what exactly is the “problem of evil”? The controversial problem of evil presents the question of how one can harmonize the actuality of evil with an immortal who ensues, in either one

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Grace Janizen’s “Whose Problem Is the ‘Problem of Evil’”, she points out the philosophers spent too much trying to answer why God created a world with evil in it and not answering more important questions. She starts off by saying that people spend too much on the matter whether good is too God to create a world with evil in it. She also explains the type of people that try to explain evil in the world, the veil of soul-making who believe that evil helps people become a better person. The other type is the free-will defense is God can only do logical things, but a world filled with evil is not very logical. Instead she feels that people should focus on other questions like if God allowed there to evil then should we really try fit those…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The proposed solution to be discussed and Mackie’s response to it is the claim that ‘evil is due to human free will’ and as such it cannot be attributed to God. Evil should instead be attributed to the free actions of individuals, the power of which has been endowed upon them by God. While it is acknowledged that there exists evil in the world, as a result of some human free will, it is claimed that freedom of will is a more valuable good than any resultant evil. Through God allowing such freedom, He has satisfied His ‘wholly good’ requirement.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    protocol paper 1

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary: In the chapter, "The problem of evil," James Rachles and Stuart Rachles arise the problem of evil by Job’s story. Although logical problem of evil are distinguished evidentiary problem of evil, both of them are play a key role religious belief. The Authors were not focus on used the problem of evil to prove or disprove God’ existence. But they elaborated on the response to various ideas about how to reconcile God with evil. According to authors, none of them were successful.…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    P4: Evil is not due to God but to man’s misuse of the free will that God gave him (McCloskey & Hick, 332 &347).…

    • 1767 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This paper will discuss the Logical and Evidential Argument from Evil, Peter Wykstra's Unknown Purpose Defense, and William Rowe's rebuttals in an attempt to ....…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary: James Rachels addresses the conflicts of evil in his book “Problems from Philosophy” by providing various forms of logical problems. The author points out the different possible explanations to why evil would exist. The first major idea Rachels makes is that perhaps pain is essential to caution people of danger. He goes on to suggest that this would not account for why some people are born with deadly diseases. Another idea he makes is that evil helps people appreciate the good in life. One would not be able to distinguish the good in life if evil did not exist. However, this does not explain why the world needs so much evil to exist, instead of letting a few bad things happen occasionally. The third idea the author makes questions why bad things happen to good people. Rachels suggests maybe those bad things that occur in life are…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Freedom to do otherwise as a requirement for moral responsibility triggers many problems in philosophy such as fatalism, causal determinism and divine foreknowledge.The problems are generally concerning about the compatibility between moral responsibility and causal determinism, which can be found among the debates on the Consequent Argument. The argument is introduced by Peter van Inwagen (1983) in An Essay on Free Will. Contemporary philosophers who participate in this argument are either support or reject this argument. Fischer presents the argument informally as follow:…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The problem of evil is a significant and enduring philosophical and theological debate. A question is often raised and discussed: if God is both all-loving and all-powerful, then how can evils-including natural evil and moral evil---exist in our world? In response to the charge that the evils of the world are incompatible with God's omnipotence and perfect goodness, the word"theodicy" is coined to deal with the problem of evil. Usually it is an attempt to show that it is possible to affirm the omnipotence of God, the love of God, and the reality of evil without contradiction. Two of the most well-known and most frequently discussed theodicies are the Augustinian theodicy and the Irenaean theodicy.…

    • 1488 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Intro: In this article, I first presented the Free Will argument. Then I showed how it fails by questioning the necessity of natural evils. After that, I defended my response against a likely rebuttal.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To present the topic of “the problem with evil,” without acknowledging there is a God can be confusing. I think one of the best questions that you could ask is, why does God allow evil being a perfect and loving God (Elwell, pg 413…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A rational belief in God, who is an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent, is not sustainable due to the evil which exists within the world. This central claim is supported by William Rowe’s evidential argument from evil and the factual premise, which explores instances of intense suffering which could have been prevented with the loss of good or by allowing further gracious evil that of moral and natural kind to occur. Theodicy objects the central claim and supporting argument by offering reasonings as to why God would allow instances of evil to occur and this notion is support by three primary supporting arguments of Theodicy. The first covers the concept of soul-making, the second is that of the free will of humans and the last is the…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evil and Omnipotence

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The imperative answer to the problem of evil is that evil originates from human free will. However, Mackie objects to this option. His belief is that nothing eliminates a world where everyone has free will and they always choose good. If Mackie’s defense is correct, then the free will solution is not sufficient. Unfortunately for Mackie, he is incorrect; the world that he has thought of would not have the greatest human relationships – those based on love.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Good and Evil in High Noon

    • 1373 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For the purposes of this discussion, the concepts of good and evil are going to be analyzed through the use of two contrasting ethical theories, Utilitarianism and Deontology.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Why Does God Allow Evil?

    • 1771 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Many people dispute the true intentions of God, himself, since the beginning of mankind. Opposing and concurring arguments can be just as primitive. Regardless of personal perspective on any indefinite theory, it is undeniable that the controversy between good and evil will inevitably exist. Two dominant philosophers discussed in “The Problem of Evil” are Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and David Hume. Both of these authors discuss interesting motives from both sides of the issue: why and why not God should allow evil.…

    • 1771 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Understanding the problem of evil in the context of natural evil is crucial as my opponent’s defense is via Free Will. Concerning the free will defense a professor of philosophy at Duke University Walter Sinnott-Armstrong stated the following; “Probably the most popular response to the problem of evil is that free will is so valuable that God let us have it even though he knew that we would, sometimes at least, misuse it and cause evil. And sure enough a lot of evil in the world is caused by human actions… there’s much evil that cannot be justified in this way. And that’s because it’s natural evil. That means evil that is not brought about as a result of…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays