J.L. Mackie - evil and omnipotence Flashcards
how does mackie define evil and omnipotence
-First, good is defined as “what is opposed to evil, in such a way that good thing always eliminates evil as far as it can.”
omnipotent is defined as “the thing that has no limits as to what it can do.”
what solutions to the problem of evil does mackie think would work
- a) Denying, or at least restricting, God’s omnipotence
b) Claiming that evil is an illusion and does not exist
c) Claiming that evil is merely the privation of the good, and does not exist on its own right
why does mackie think that evil must necessarily exist in this world, if good is also is also to exist
-Good cannot exist without evil, or evil is necessary as a counterpart to the good.
Without evil there would be no good, or at least we would not know that there is good, since there would not be something we could compare it to.
At face value, this seems to contradict God’s omnipotence.
Why? Because it suggest that God could not create good without creating evil.
But maybe this is not that bad, if we only think that God is unable to do something that is logically impossible (even God cannot make a round square).
Mackie denies that this is the only problem.
Because the existence of evil is not something that is logically connected to good, in the way that smallness is something logically connected to bigness.
Big and small are relative terms, and every time we have the one, we also have to have the other.
But, in order for the claim that God is benevolent to be meaningful, “good” has to be more than a relative term.
A question here: how would we be able to know that the world is good if there were no evil?
Well, we would not, Mackie says.
But this does not mean that the world would not be good, and that God would not know that.
what does mackie think about the idea that evil is necessary as a means to an even greater good
-Evil is necessary as a means to good.
What does this mean?
We cannot attain true good unless we strive.
But, if that is the case, God seems to be less than omnipotent.
For, if God were all-powerful, why did God make it impossible to achieve good the easy way (without experiencing evil)?
what does mackie think about the relationship between the existence of evil and freedom of the will? could there be free will without evil?
-Evil is due to human freewill.
According to this view, God has provided all humans with the ability to overcome the hardships they face and maximize the higher good they enjoy.
The fact that many of us fail to do so is because we misuse the free will that God gave us.
But God is not responsible for this.
Mackie‘s reply:
Why did God not make human beings who would act freely but always do right?
This seems to be better than both having no freewill and having freewill accompanied by evil.
The fact that God did not make such a world is incompatible with the view that God is omnipotent and benevolent.
Either God could make people good, but chose not to do so, or he could not control us.
In general, Mackie thinks that the notion of freewill is incompatible with God’s omnipotence.
If we are really free, then God cannot make us do what he wants or commands.
Maybe, the theist would reply, God can control people’s wills, but chooses not to do so.
But why wouldn’t God do that, if this avoids evil?
The only answer is that he values a free will more than behaving people.
But this is not how theists think about sin.
Mackie closes by making some general comments about omnipotence.
According to Mackie, there is something paradoxical about omnipotence, the way theists use it.
what is mackie’s paradox of omnipotence
The Paradox of Omnipotence: can an omnipotent being make things that he cannot subsequently control (e.g. a stone he cannot lift, or a being that is free to disobey him)?
The answer cannot be yes, nor can it be no (this is why this is a paradox).
So, there is some difficulty about the notion of omnipotence itself.
Is there a way out of the paradox?
Mackie thinks there is.
What we need is to distinguish between two kinds of omnipotence.
Omnipotence (1) is the unlimited power to act.
Omnipotence (2) is the unlimited power to determine what powers to act other beings have.
God may have omnipotence (2) all the time, but not omnipotence (1) since God cannot control human beings.
-
