Theodicy
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best of all possible worlds
- In best of all possible worlds
…in his work Théodicée (1710; Theodicy), which was devoted to defending the justness of God (see theodicy). The argument thus constitutes Leibniz’s solution to the problem of evil, or the apparent contradiction between the assumption that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent (perfectly good) and the evident fact of evil…
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discussed in biography
- In Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: The Hanoverian period of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
…was because he was writing Théodicée (Theodicy), which was published in 1710. In this work he set down his ideas on divine justice, particularly on the problem of evil, arguing that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds that God could have created—a view famously mocked in…
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possible world
- In possible world
In his Theodicy (1710), G.W. Leibniz used the concept of a possible world in his proposed solution to the theological problem of the existence of evil, arguing that an all-perfect God would actualize the best of all possible worlds; this idea was later satirized by Voltaire in…
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theodicy
- In theodicy: Types of theodicy
…Dominican theologian, and in the Theodicy (1710), by the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. According to Leibniz, there are three forms of evil in the world: moral, physical, and metaphysical. Using Augustine’s analogy of a picture with dark patches (what strikes one as ugly in itself may nevertheless…
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