Marilyn McCord Adams and the Defeat of Evil

00:00 Introduction
1:18 Instrumental Solutions?
3:27 Dimensions of Divine Goodness
5:23 The Problem of Horrendous Evils
7:30 Who bears responsibility?
10:43 The Inapplicability of Moral Categories
12:45 Compensation
13:50 Balancing-Off Relations
14:52 Relations of Organic Unity
15:39 Examples from Aesthetics
16:37 Considering Defeat
20:49 Divine Intimacy with Christ as Horror Participant
22:58 Closing

Before her death in 2017, Marilyn McCord Adams had a long and impressive career as a philosopher and theologian. While she had many interests both philosophical and theological, the problem of evil loomed ever-present in her thinking. I intend this video as an introduction to her views on the problem of evil; specifically on the notion of axiological defeat that features so heavily.

Adams, M. M., & Sutherland, S. (1989). Horrendous evils and the goodness of God. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, 63, 297-323.Adams, M. M. (2018). Horrendous evils and the goodness of God. Cornell University Press.

Adams, M. M. (1999). Horrendous evils and the goodness of God. Cornell University Press.

Adams, M. M. (2001). Afterward. In S. Davis (Ed.), Encountering Evil: Live options in theodicy (pp. 191-203). Louisville: Westminster John Knox.

Adams, M. M. (2006). Christ and horrors: The coherence of Christology (Vol. 4). Cambridge University Press.

Adams, M. M. (2013). Ignorance, instrumentality, compensation, and the problem of evil. Sophia, 52, 7-26.

Moore, G. E. (1903). Principia Ethica. Cambridge University Press.

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