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    Dostoevsky's Ivan Karamazov argument establishes that eve... — Carmelics
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    Supports→The soul-making theodicy is at best an incomplete answer to the problem of suffering.

    Dostoevsky's Ivan Karamazov argument establishes that even if soul-making produces net moral benefit, the suffering of a single innocent child cannot be morally justified by any aggregate developmental outcome, exposing a fundamental unit-of-analysis failure in Hick's theodicy.

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    Key Terms

    Hick's theodicy(as the philosophical theory being evaluated)
    John Hick's specific answer to why God allows suffering: he claims suffering serves a purpose in developing human character and spiritual growth.
    Ivan Karamazov(as a literary example of radical self-definition)
    A character from Dostoevsky's novel who struggles with faith and morality, famously arguing that without God, everything is permitted—representing someone who rejects traditional sources of meaning.
    Ivan Karamazov argument(as used in ethics and philosophy of suffering)
    A philosophical challenge that says even if suffering leads to personal growth, the pain of innocent people (especially children) cannot be morally acceptable or explained away by those benefits.
    John Hick(he is the philosopher being referenced for a specific theodicy)
    A 20th-century philosopher and theologian who developed the Irenaean theodicy—a theory that God allows evil to exist so humans can grow spiritually and develop morally.

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    Net moral benefit(as used in ethics)
    When the total amount of good produced by something outweighs the total amount of harm or bad it causes.
    Soul-making(one of the goods Hick argues requires evil to exist)
    The spiritual and moral development that happens when people face challenges and make difficult choices; becoming a better person through struggle.
    Unit-of-analysis failure(as used in ethics and logic)
    A problem where an argument treats a large group or total outcome as acceptable without properly considering the harm to individual people within that group.
    aggregate(Avicenna's argument for a necessary existent)
    The totality of all currently existing contingent individual things, each of whose existence is accounted for by its causal antecedents.
    theodicy(Central concern of Plutarch's era)
    The philosophical problem of reconciling the existence of evil and unpunished wrongdoing with the existence and goodness of divine providence.

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