Gratuitous Suffering and the Problem of Evil: A Comprehensive Introduction

ISBN-13: 9780415662956 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 208 str.

Bryan Frances

Opis

Gratuitous Suffering and the Problem of Evil: A Comprehensive Introduction is among the first book-length discussions of theistic approaches to the problem of evil. Bryan Frances s lucid analyses of a variety of possible responses to the problem of evil will provide serious students or general readers much material with which to consider this ancient and contemporary concern.

The book offers many useful pedagogical features, including chapter overviews, study questions, summaries, and suggested readings.

Spis treści

I. Introduction 1. The Need for Trustworthiness and Competence 2. Foreshadowing 3. Suggested Further Reading II. The Question is: Is There Gratuitous Suffering That Rules Out God? 1. The Problem of Gratuitous Suffering 2. The Gratuitous Premise 3. The Consequence Premise 4. The Logical Problem of Suffering 5. The Problem of the Inferior Universe III. Possible Theistic Responses to the Question 1. The Logic of Responses 2. The Five Approaches 3. Faith as a Response 4. Ignorance IV. The Confident Knowledge of God 1. What the Approach Says 2. Criticisms of the Approach 3. Evidence for the Approach 3(a). The Design Argument 3(b). The Cosmological Argument 3(c). The Social Argument 4. Lessons IV. God Permits Gratuitous Suffering 1. What the Approach Says 2. Criticisms of the Approach V. God's Reasons for Suffering Revealed 1. What the Approach Says 2. Knowledge 3. Free Will 4. Soul-Making 5. Afterlife 6. Original Sin 7. Lawfulness 8. Motivation 9. Divine Suffering 10 Lessons VI. Our Inability to see God's Plan 1. What the Approach Says 2. Criticisms of the Approach 3. Modifying the Approach 4. Lessons VII. God is not What You Think He Is 1. What the Approach Says 2. Conception of God as Unconscious 3. Conception of God as Morally Bad 4. Conception of God as Morally Unassessable 5. Conception of God as Epistemically Deficient 6. Conception of God as Weak 7. Conception of God as Non-Individual 8. Conception of God Involving Analogy VIII. Warranted and Unwarranted Conclusions INDEX

O autorze

Bryan Frances is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University.