university of toronto press the problem of evil in early modern philosophy dec 2001

[...]... perennial as the themes of Augustine's theodicy are the challenges to them, challenges that are central to the theodicy debates in the early modern Introduction 5 period If the world containing evil is ultimately a good world - perhaps even the best of all possible worlds - does this not amount to a denial of the reality of evil? Is the appearance of evil not in the end a function of the limitation of human... troubling of problems The papers in this volume were delivered at a conference on the problem of evil in early modern philosophy held at the University of Toronto during 3-5 September 1999, and sponsored by the SSHRC, by the Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, and by St Michael's College, University of Toronto We would like to thank Sebastien Charles and Syliane Charles of the University of. .. significance, a problem which cut to the heart of the philosophical and theological projects of the very best minds of the age II The problem of theodicy is urgent within the philosophy of the early modern period because the dream of the new scientists was for a complete explanation of reality without remainder, a physico-mathematical modelling of the worldpicture without any irrational surd to spoil the picture... prior act; rather, [in some cases] the one act is omitted at the very same time the other is being chosen (DM 22.2.36) The Thomists posit predeterminations in part to sustain the doctrine that God is the principal originating source of being and goodness, including moral goodness Suarez is charging in effect that their theory has the unintended consequence of making God the primary source of moral defectiveness... Metaphysics, and finally the Theodicy, particularly with regard to Leibniz's handling of the classical themes of the free-will defence and of evil as privation As always in the work of the great polymath, natural theology is never far removed from the abstruse doctrines of his metaphysics, such as his theories of contingency and of individuation His genius is in bringing together in synthesis his own... evil and theodicy, equal in importance to the Rationalist dream of a perfect science, involves the labyrinthine problem of freedom and predestination, particularly in the causation of sin Although a problem with a biblical lineage, the contingencies of history brought it, by the early modern period, to a near-crisis level of acuteness The denial of human freedom and the determinism imposed by divine predestination... predestination which Martin Luther read in some of the Pauline epistles was key to the Reformer's rejection of the efficacy of good works, and of the whole sacerdotal-sacramental system of the Roman Church The first attempt at a reasoned refutation of Luther on freedom, Erasmus's On the Freedom of the Will, was crushed by the more powerful reasoning of Luther's mighty Bondage of the Will Although the. .. original sin Kremer also argues that Leibniz's position on the fate of infants who die unbaptized reflects an important break with the Augustinian division of the problem of evil into two parts, one dealing with humans (and other intelligent creatures) and one dealing with subhuman creatures Leibniz's discomfiture is archetypical of the early modern philosophers in their dealings with the problems of theodicy... a young man Augustine was attracted to the sect of the Manichaeans precisely because of their rational solution to the problem of evil: cosmic dualism Rather than fruitlessly endeavouring to show how a single all-good principle could account for evil, the solution of the Manichaeans was to posit an evil god as the source of evil, leaving good alone as the product of the good god In the seventeenth century,... he intends Thus, even though God might use our sins as instruments in bringing us to true humility and repentance, he cannot directly intend sin or be a causal source of sin or in any way induce us to sin Suarez summarizes his discussion in this way: Because of its depravity, the evil of sin cannot be intended or willed by God, but only permitted On the other hand, the other kinds of evil, wherever they . the heart of the philosophical and theological projects of the very best minds of the age. II The problem of theodicy is urgent within the philosophy of the early modern period. on the problem of evil in early modern philosophy held at the University of Toronto during 3-5 September 1999, and sponsored by the SSHRC, by the Department of Philosophy, University . genius is in bringing together in synthesis his own idiosyncratic metaphysical doctrines and the classical themes of Augustinan theodicy, includ- ing the doctrine that the created