The Positive Function of Evil

This collection explores the controversial and perhaps even abject idea that evils, large and small, human and natural, may have a central positive function to play in our lives. For centuries a concern of religious thinkers from the Christian tradition, very little systematic work has been done to explore this idea from the secular point of view.

ROBERT MERRIHEW ADAMS is a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy, Mansfield College, Oxford, and Visiting Professor of Philosophy in the University of Oxford, UK RICHARD H. BELL is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, The College of Wooster, Ohio, USA ELISA GALGUT teaches in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town, South Africa JOHN KEKES is retired Professor of Philosophy now works as an independent author. MICHAEL LACEWING is Director of Research and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Heythrop College, London, UK THADDEUS METZ is Professor of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa ADAM MORTON holds a Canada Research Chair in Epistemology and Decision Theory at the University of Alberta, Canada GEOFFREY SCARRE is Professor of Philosophy, Durham University, UK SAMANTHA VICE is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Rhodes University, South Africa HEATHER WIDDOWS is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham, UK