Defusing the Common Sense Problem of Evil

Faith and Philosophy 32 (4):391-403 (2015)
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Abstract

The inductive argument from evil to the non-existence of God contains the premise that, probably, there is gratuitous evil. Some skeptical theists object: one's justification for the premise that, probably, there is gratuitous evil involves an inference from the proposition that we don't see a good reason for some evil to the proposition that it appears that there is no good reason for that evil, and they use a principle, "CORNEA," to block that inference. The common sense problem of evil threatens the CORNEA move, because the common sense problem of evil does not involve any inference to justify the belief that there is gratuitous evil. In this paper, I argue that the common sense problem of evil doesn't avoid CORNEA. CORNEA, or a reformulated version of it, can still prevent one from having justification for the belief that there is gratuitous evil.

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Chris Tweedt
Christopher Newport University

References found in this work

Friendly Atheism, Skeptical Theism, and the Problem of Evil.William L. Rowe - 2006 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 59 (2):79-92.
We Are (Almost) All Externalists Now.Juan Comesaña - 2005 - Philosophical Perspectives 19 (1):59-76.
Evil and the Proper Basicality of Belief in God.Paul Draper - 1991 - Faith and Philosophy 8 (2):135-147.

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