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HandWiki. Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35213 (accessed on 20 September 2026).
HandWiki. Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35213. Accessed September 20, 2026.
HandWiki. "Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35213 (accessed September 20, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 18). Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35213
HandWiki. "Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense." Encyclopedia. Web. 18 November, 2022.
Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense
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Alvin Plantinga's free will defense is a logical argument developed by American analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga, the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, and published in its final version in his 1977 book God, Freedom, and Evil. Plantinga's argument is a defense against the logical problem of evil as formulated by philosopher J. L. Mackie beginning in 1955. Mackie's formulation of the logical problem of evil argued that three attributes of God, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence, in orthodox Christian theism are logically incompatible with the existence of evil. In 1982, Mackie conceded that Plantinga's defense successfully refuted his argument in The Miracle of Theism, though he did not claim that the problem of evil had been put to rest.

free will defense omnibenevolence problem of evil

References

  1. Mackie, J. L. (1955). "Evil and Omnipotence". Mind 64: 200–12. 
  2. McCloskey, H. J. (1960). "God and Evil". Philosophical Quarterly 10: 97–114. 
  3. Plantinga, Alvin (1977). God, Freedom, and Evil. Grand Rapids, MI:: Eerdmans. pp. Chapter 4. ISBN 0-8028-1731-9. 
  4. "It used to be widely held by philosophers that God and evil are incompatible. Not any longer. Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense is largely responsible for this shift."Howard-Snyder, Daniel; John O’Leary-Hawthorne (1999). "Transworld Sanctity and Plantinga's Free Will Defense". International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion 16 (3): 336–351. http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Howard-Snyder-Transworld-Sanctity-and-Plantingas-Free-Will-Defense.pdf. Retrieved 2013-09-12. 
  5. "Most philosophers have agreed that the free will defense has defeated the logical problem of evil. [...] Because of [Plantinga's argument], it is now widely accepted that the logical problem of evil has been sufficiently rebutted." Meister 2009, p. 134
  6. Craig, William Lane. "The problem of evil". http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-problem-of-evil. "Therefore, I’m very pleased to be able to report that it is widely agreed among contemporary philosophers that the logical problem of evil has been dissolved. The co-existence of God and evil is logically possible." 
  7. Meister 2009, p. 134
  8. Howard-Snyder & O'Leary-Hawthorne 1998, p. 1
  9. Alston 1991, p. 49
  10. Peterson et al. 1991, p. 133
  11. LaFollette, Hugh (1980). "Plantinga on the Free Will Defense". International Journal for Philosophy of Religion: 123–32. http://www.hughlafollette.com/papers/Plantinga_on_the_Free_Will_Defense.pdf. Retrieved 11 September 2013. 
  12. Bradley, Raymond D.. "The Free Will Defense Refuted and God's Existence Disproved". http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/raymond_bradley/fwd-refuted.html. Retrieved 11 September 2013. 
  13. Bergmann, Michael (1999). "Might-Counterfactuals, Transworld Untrustworthiness, and Plantinga's Free Will Defense". Faith and Philosophy 16 (3): 336–351. doi:10.5840/faithphil199916332.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5840%2Ffaithphil199916332
  14. Howard-Snyder, Daniel; John Hawthorne (1998). "Transworld Sanctity and Plantinga's Free Will Defense". Int'l. Journal for Philosophy of Religion 44: 1–21. 
  15. Craig, William Lane. "Logical Problem of Evil". http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-problem-of-evil. "I’m very pleased to be able to report that it is widely agreed among contemporary philosophers that the logical problem of evil has been dissolved. The co-existence of God and evil is logically possible." 
  16. "Logical Problem of Evil". http://www.iep.utm.edu/evil-log/. "But if the atheist means there’s some implicit contradiction between God and evil, then he must be assuming some hidden premises which bring out this implicit contradiction. But the problem is that no philosopher has ever been able to identify such premises. Therefore, the logical problem of evil fails to prove any inconsistency between God and evil." 
  17. Craig, William Lane. "The Problem of Evil". http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-problem-of-evil. "But if the atheist means there’s some implicit contradiction between God and evil, then he must be assuming some hidden premises which bring out this implicit contradiction. But the problem is that no philosopher has ever been able to identify such premises. Therefore, the logical problem of evil fails to prove any inconsistency between God and evil." 
  18. Surin 1995, p. 193
  19. Mackie 1955, p. 200
  20. Plantinga 1974, pp. 166–167
  21. Plantinga 1977, p. 30
  22. Peterson et al. 1991, pp. 130–133
  23. Plantinga 1977, pp. 33–34
  24. Rowe 1979, p. 335
  25. Oppy 2006, pp. 262–263
  26. Weisberger 1999, p. 39
  27. Beebe 2005
  28. Mackie 1962
  29. Flew 1973
  30. Plantinga 1977, p. 32
  31. Plantinga 1977, p. 48
  32. Plantinga 1977, p. 53
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