References
See Charles Journet, The Meaning of Evil (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1963), pp. 117–118; H. J. McCloskey, God and Evil (The Hague: Martinus Nijihoff, 1974), p. 82; Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom and Evil (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), p. 61; George Schlesinger, Religion and Scientific Method (Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1977), pp. 65, 72; Bruce Reichenbach, “Must God Create the Best Possible World?” International Philosophical Quarterly 19 (1979): 208; R. K. Perkins Jr, “McHarry's Theodicy: A Reply” Analysis 40 (1980), p. 171; Peter Forrest, “The Problem of Evil: Two Neglected Defences” Sophia 20 (1981), p. 52; William Hasker, “Must God Do His Best?” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 16 (1984), p. 213; Richard Swinburne, The Existence of God, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 113–114; Philip L. Quinn, “God, Moral Perfection, and Possible Worlds” in Michael L. Peterson, ed., The Problem of Evil (Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), p. 294; Robert Elliot, “Divine Perfection, Axiology and the No Best World Defence” Religious Studies 29 (1993), p. 533; Daniel Howard-Snyder & Frances Howard-Snyder, “How an Unsurpassable Being Can Create a Surpassable World” Faith and Philosophy 11 (1994), p. 260.
Swinburne, op cit., p. 114.
Plantinga, op. cit., p. 61.
Elliot, op. cit., p. 533; cf Perkins Jr, op. cit., p. 171.
For happiness see Swinburne, op. cit., p. 114; George Schlesinger, New Perspectives on Old-Time Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 55. For virtue see Quinn, op. cit., p. 293; Osmond G. Ramberan, “God, Evil and the Idea of a Perfect World” Modern Schoolman 53 (1976), p. 392.
See Reichenbach, op. cit., p. 208; Jay Rosenberg, “The Problem of Evil Revisited: A Reply to Schlesinger” Journal of Value Inquiry 4 (1970), pp. 213–214; Schlesinger, Religion and Scientific Method, p. 62; Peter Geach, The Virtues (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 98; Swinburne, op. cit., p. 114.
See Stephen Grover, “Satisfied Pigs and Dissatisfied Philosophers: Schlesinger on the Problem of Evil” Philosophical Investigations 16 (1993), p. 222.
For an alternative view see John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart, The Nature of Existence Vol. II (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1927), pp. 414–415.
See John Mackie, The Miracle of Theism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 155; Richard Swinburne, Providence and the Problem of Evil (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 107.
For simplicity see G. W. Leibniz, Theodicy, trans. E. M. Huggard, ed. Austin Farrer (Chicago: Open Court, 1990), p. 257; Nicolas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion, trans. David Scott (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 163. For variety see Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings, trans. and ed. Timothy McDermott (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1993), p. 271; Leibniz, op. cit., p. 198; G. W. Leibniz, Philosophical Writings, trans. and ed. G. H. R. Parkinson (London: Everyman, 1973), p. 146.
See Bruce Reichenbach, “Natural Evils and Natural Laws: A Theodicy for Natural Evils” International Philosophical Quarterly 16 (1976), p. 187f.
See Ninian Smart, Philosophers and Religious Truth (London: SCM Press, 1964), p. 154; Ramberan, op. cit., p. 381; Swinburne, Providence and the Problem of Evil, pp. 179ff.
See John Hick, Evil and the God of Love, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1985), p. 309; Swinburne, Providence and the Problem of Evil, pp. 166f.
See Stephen Grover, “Incommensurability and the Best of All Possible Worlds” The Monist 81 (1998), pp. 662–664.
Chang, op. cit., p. 14.
See Ruth Chang, “Introduction” in Ruth Chang, ed., Incommensurability, Incomparability, and Practical Reason (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 14–17, and Donald Regan, “Value, Comparability, and Choice” in Ruth Chang, ed., Incommensurability, Incomparability, and Practical Reason (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 134–136.
See David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ed. Stanley Tweyman (London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 164–165; Swinburne, Providence and the Problem of Evil, pp. 188–189; Daise Radner & Michael Radner, “Optimality in Biology: Pangloss or Leibniz?” The Monist 81 (1998): 682.
Plotinus, Enneads, trans. Stephen Mackenna (London: Penguin, 1991), III. 2.15, p. 150.
I would like to thank Vernon Pratt, Patrick Sherry and Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad for their comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.
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Strickland, L. Determining the Best of All Possible Worlds. J Value Inquiry 39, 37–47 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-006-6863-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-006-6863-4