Metaphysics of Good and Evil

David S. Oderberg is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, England. He is the author of many articles in metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of religion, and other subjects. His books include Moral Theory: A Non-Consequentialist Approach (2000), Applied Ethics: A Non-Consequentialist Approach (2000) and Real Essentialism (2007). He is also the editor of several collections on ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Prof. Oderberg edits Ratio, an international journal of analytic philosophy.

• Introduction Part I A Theory of Good as Fulfilment 1. The basic theory: appetites and fulfilment 2. Developing the Scholastic conception of goodness 3. A case for inorganic goodness 4. The good in the living Part II A Theory of Evil as Privation 5. In defence of the privation theory 6. Evil and truthmaking 7. Evil as cause and effect 8. The reality of evil

"Oderberg’s work provides theologians the clarity necessary to avoid spouting platitudes or nonsense when posed the question: if evil is, in itself, nothing but a lack of being, how can evil wreak so much damage? Oderberg’s response is that the theory on which evils are privations of being does not entail that evils are not real. Despite sin and evil remaining mysterious features of the world, then, the first half of the book and the concluding chapter on the reality of evil would be fruitful to anyone looking to understand or defend classical Christian reflection concerning the mysterium iniquitatis." - Fr. James Dominic Rooney, OP, Religious Studies Review