Good-bye to the problem of evil, hello to the problem of veracity
CHRISTOPHER MILES COOPE a1 a1 Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT
Abstract
I start from Mill's words about Mansel and the problem of evil. In this
dispute Mansel has generally been thought to have come off worst. However, Mansel
was clearly right to this extent: that what would make a man a good man would not
be the same as what made God good. This is because, quite generally, what makes
something good of its kind, where we can talk about goodness at all, varies with the
kind. With Aristotle we must say: the criteria are fixed by the thing's ergon, or at
least by something analogous. On this account, it would seem that God must be
perfect, since as an intelligent agent He does supremely well what is in the nature of
an intelligent agent to do. This seems to lead to the right solution to the problem of
evil. But Mill also had something useful to contribute. He saw that there would be a
consequent difficulty in regard to revelation. This difficulty seems to be severe and
insufficiently discussed.
