Search | Korea Science

Lee, Nam-won
- Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
- /
- v.131
- /
- pp.273-301
- /
- 2014
This study aims to reconstruct Leibniz's theodicy. Theodicy is to defense of the highest wisdom of the creator against the charge which reason brings against it for whatever is the evil in the world. For this defense, Leibniz created his own new kind of concepts: the principle of sufficient reason, the principle of perfection, the best of all possible worlds, moral necessity. Leibniz's theodicy is developed as following. Most good and wisest God created this world freely by moral necessity. God's will was to choose the goods antecedently. But God's will could not create goods only. For God's final purpose is to create the best. For this reason, it happens that the evils may come about by concomitance, and as a result of other greater goods. Therefore the evils are necessary in the world. And evil consists in imperfection. Man has free will as God. Freedom, according to Leibniz, consists in intelligence, which involves a clear knowledge of the object of deliberation. Man has freedom, but man's freedom is imperfect. Evil is originated in man's imperfect freedom.