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The Price of Moral Significance: Reflections on the Problem of Evil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2025

Cheryl Chen
Cheryl Chen*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Harvard University, Boston, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: ckchen@fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Why would an omnipotent and benevolent God create a world with so much evil? Some theologians suggest that God permits evil for the sake of moral goodness. Because an act cannot be good unless it is freely performed, God could not create a world with moral goodness without giving us the freedom to perform both good and evil acts. But is this a wise trade-off for God to make? Or is evil too steep a price to pay for moral significance?

Keywords

Godevilfree willmoral responsibilityreactive attitudes
Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 24 , Issue 69 , Spring 2025 , pp. 19 - 23
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Institute of Philosophy.

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