Kant on the Problem of Evil

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Langston, Douglas

Keywords

Kant, Immanuel, Philosophy, Religion, Problem, Evil, Enlightenment, Theology, Hume, David, Leibniz, Gottfried, Theodicy

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

The term 'theodicy' comes from the Greek words meaning 'God' and 'justice.' In a literal sense, then, a theodicy is a justification of God that is offered in the face of contradictory instances of evil in the world. The term may be generalized as an explanation for evil given the existence of a good and all-powerful Divine Being. A successful theodicy should not only be convincing to the opposition, but should also be capable of offering substantial answers to the problem of evil instead of simply avoiding the issue through a priori argumentation. In this thesis project, I will determine the type of theodicy that can be constructed from Immanuel Kant's philosophy of religion, contextualize it, and argue that it is indeed capable of meeting these criteria. This process will entail detailed examination of the problem of evil and Kant's philosophy as a whole.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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