ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the context and content of the most influential early modern discussions of evil. It explores who or what, according to Rene Descartes, is responsible for the actuality of moral evil. The chapter also focuses on God's relation to moral and physical evils. It looks at several criticisms of appeals to privation theory and freedom in theodicies. The chapter describes physical evils and Malebranche's striking explanation for their existence and distribution in a world sustained by an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God. Benedictus Spinoza admits that there is no such thing as moral evil, if "evil" refers to the deprivation of an intrinsic excellence that is independent of human judgments. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's bold proclamation that our world is the best world that God could have made became the subject of parody and ridicule among Parisian intellectuals.
