The Problem of Evil
E726004
The Problem of Evil is a philosophical work by Peter van Inwagen that rigorously examines how the existence of suffering and evil relates to belief in an all-powerful, all-good God.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Problem of Evil canonical | 1 |
| problem of evil | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8332890 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Problem of Evil Context triple: [Peter van Inwagen, notableWork, The Problem of Evil]
-
A.
Theodicy
Theodicy is a philosophical and theological work by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil with an all-powerful, all-good God by arguing that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
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B.
God, Freedom, and Evil
"God, Freedom, and Evil" is a philosophical work by Alvin Plantinga that rigorously defends the rationality of theism and develops the influential free will defense against the logical problem of evil.
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C.
Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal
Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal is a 1710 philosophical work by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil with the goodness and omnipotence of God.
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D.
The Existence of God
The Existence of God is a major work of analytic philosophy of religion in which Richard Swinburne presents a detailed, probabilistic argument for the rationality of believing in God’s existence.
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E.
The Nature of Evil
"The Nature of Evil" is a philosophical and theological work by Henry James Sr. that explores the origins, meaning, and moral implications of evil in human life and the universe.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Problem of Evil Target entity description: The Problem of Evil is a philosophical work by Peter van Inwagen that rigorously examines how the existence of suffering and evil relates to belief in an all-powerful, all-good God.
-
A.
Theodicy
Theodicy is a philosophical and theological work by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil with an all-powerful, all-good God by arguing that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
-
B.
God, Freedom, and Evil
"God, Freedom, and Evil" is a philosophical work by Alvin Plantinga that rigorously defends the rationality of theism and develops the influential free will defense against the logical problem of evil.
-
C.
Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal
Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme et l’origine du mal is a 1710 philosophical work by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil with the goodness and omnipotence of God.
-
D.
The Existence of God
The Existence of God is a major work of analytic philosophy of religion in which Richard Swinburne presents a detailed, probabilistic argument for the rationality of believing in God’s existence.
-
E.
The Nature of Evil
"The Nature of Evil" is a philosophical and theological work by Henry James Sr. that explores the origins, meaning, and moral implications of evil in human life and the universe.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | book ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
assess rationality of belief in God given evil
ⓘ
clarify arguments from evil ⓘ evaluate theistic responses to evil ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Christian theism
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
contemporary analytic theology ⓘ |
| author | Peter van Inwagen NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| discusses |
divine hiddenness
ⓘ
gratuitous evil ⓘ moral evil ⓘ natural evil ⓘ omnibenevolence ⓘ omnipotence ⓘ |
| examines |
arguments from evil against theism
ⓘ
compatibility of evil with an omnibenevolent God ⓘ compatibility of evil with an omnipotent God ⓘ free will defenses ⓘ responses to the problem of evil ⓘ skeptical theism ⓘ theodicies ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
evidential problem of evil
ⓘ
logical problem of evil ⓘ |
| genre |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
non-fiction ⓘ |
| hasForm |
extended philosophical argument
ⓘ
systematic treatment of a single issue ⓘ |
| hasPerspective | analytic philosophy of religion ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
professional philosophers
ⓘ
students of philosophy of religion ⓘ theologians ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
evil and suffering
ⓘ
existence of God ⓘ philosophy of religion ⓘ problem of evil NERFINISHED ⓘ theism ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
free will defense
ⓘ
inconsistent triad (God, power, goodness, evil) ⓘ skeptical theism ⓘ theodicy ⓘ |
| relatedPerson |
Alvin Plantinga
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
J. L. Mackie NERFINISHED ⓘ William Rowe NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedWork | The Problem of Evil (topic) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Problem of Evil Description of subject: The Problem of Evil is a philosophical work by Peter van Inwagen that rigorously examines how the existence of suffering and evil relates to belief in an all-powerful, all-good God.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
problem of evil