Determining the Best of All Possible Worlds

Strickland, Lloyd H.

doi:10.1007/s10790-006-6863-4

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Despite the more than three hundred years that have passed since Leibniz's Theodicy was published, debates on the existence of evil in the world and the best of all possible worlds have not been silenced. On the contrary, there is a great number of present-day literature on this topic, including analyses, commentaries and assessments of Leibniz's arguments on why there is evil in the world and supporting God's choice of the best world of all (Broad, 1975;Franklin, 2002;Grover, 2003;Hadsell, 2019;Hernandez, 2010;Lougheed, 2014;MacDonald, 2018;Nadler, 2008;Silver, 2018;Steinberg, 2007;Strickland, 2005;Strickland, 2017;Rukgaber, 2019 and many others). In a similar spirit to Voltaire's, many contemporary authors, experts on Leibniz's work, voice their opinions.…”

Section: Leibniz's Philosophical Optimism In Present Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leibniz’s and Herder’s philosophy of optimism

Gluchman

2021

Ethics &Amp; Bioethics

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The author studies Leibniz’s views of vindicating God for the existence of evil in the world, as well as the idea of the best of all possible worlds, including the past and present criticism. Following Leibniz, he opted for the presentation of Herder’s philosophy of history as one of the most significant forms of philosophical optimism that influenced the first half of the 19th century, including contemporary debates on and critiques of the topic. He defines Herder’s concept as the philosophy of historical progress, which also significantly influenced Slovak philosophy of the given period. The main goal of the article is to present Leibniz’s and Herder’s views as a starting point for the Slovak philosophy of optimism and historical progress of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century.

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Section: Leibniz's Philosophical Optimism In Present Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leibniz’s and Herder’s philosophy of optimism

Gluchman

2021

Ethics &Amp; Bioethics

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“…17 See, for example,Plantinga (1974b, 61);Schlesinger (1977);Forrest (1981);Reichenbach (1982, 121-9); andSwinburne (1979, 114-5). For doubts about such claims, seeGrover (1999);Franklin (2002);and Strickland (2005).18 For example, seeHoffman and Rosenkrantz (2002, 159) andStrickland (2006). Many more treat this as an epistemic possibility.19 For example, suppose that w′ differs from w by having one more grain of sand on one beach than w does (and whatever is required for this, and whatever ensues from this).…”

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confidence: 99%

Creation, World-Actualization, and God's Choice Among Possible Worlds

Kraay¹

2021

Preprint

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Creation, Actualization and God's Choice among Possible Worlds

Kraay

2008

Philosophy Compass

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God is traditionally understood to be a perfect being who is the creator and sustainer of all that is. God's creative and sustaining activity is often thought to involve choosing a possible world for actualization. It is generally said that either there is (a) exactly one best of all possible worlds, or there are (b) infinitely many increasingly better worlds, or else there are (c) infinitely many unsurpassable worlds within God's power to actualize. On each view, critics have offered arguments for atheism that turn on God's choice of a world. In what follows, I first discuss some background issues, and I then survey the contemporary literature on these arguments.

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Determining the Best of All Possible Worlds

Cited by 4 publications

References 4 publications

Leibniz’s and Herder’s philosophy of optimism

Leibniz’s and Herder’s philosophy of optimism

Creation, World-Actualization, and God's Choice Among Possible Worlds

Creation, Actualization and God's Choice among Possible Worlds

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