[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40208-en":3,"doc-seo-40208-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},40208,16904993612988,"Olivia Brown","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",9,"Religion & Spirituality","Evil and the Ontological Disproof","This dissertation revives the ontological disproof, an argument claiming the impossibility of God. It responds to the alleged loss of force of the 1948 version by proposing a synthesis with the problem of evil. If God exists, God must exist necessarily; such necessary existence makes God impossible when a possible state of affairs conflicts with God’s essential attributes of perfect goodness and omnipotence. The possibility of evil incompatible with God performs this role.","City University of New York (CUNY)  \nCUNY Academic Works  \n\n| Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects | CUNY Graduate Center |\n| --- | --- |\n\n9-2017  \nEvil and the Ontological Disproof  \nCarl J. Brownson III  \nThe Graduate Center, City University of New York  \nHow does access to this work benefit you? Let us know!  \nMore information about this work at: [https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2155](https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2155)  \nDiscover additional works at: [https://academicworks.cuny.edu](https://academicworks.cuny.edu)  \nThis work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY) . [Contact: AcademicWorks@cuny.edu](Contact: AcademicWorks@cuny.edu)  \nEVIL AND THE ONTOLOGICAL DISPROOF  \nby  \nCARL BROWNSON  \nA dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Philosophy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, City University of New York  \n2017  \n© 2017  \nCARL BROWNSON All Rights Reserved  \nii  \nEvil and the Ontological Disproof by  \nCarl Brownson  \nThis manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Philosophy in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.  \nDate  \nGraham Priest  \nChair of Examining Committee  \nIakovos Vasiliou  \nExecutive Officer  \nSupervisory Committee:  \nStephen Grover, advisor Graham Priest  \nPeter Simpson Nickolas Pappas Robert Lovering  \nTHE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK  \nABSTRACT  \nEvil and the Ontological Disproof  \nby  \nCarl Brownson  \nAdvisor: Stephen Grover  \nThis dissertation is a revival of the ontological disproof, an ontological argument against the existence of God. The ontological disproof, in its original form, argues that God is impossible, because if God exists, he must exist necessarily, and necessary existence is impossible. The notion of necessary existence has been largely rehabilitated since this argument was first offered in 1948, and the argument has accordingly lost much of its force. I argue that the ontological disproof ought tobe combined with the problem of evil, and that the resulting synthesis of the two arguments is far more powerful than either element could be alone. The argument is this: if God exists, then he exists necessarily. This necessary existence entails that the mere possibility of a state of affairs incompatible with God’s essential qualities, his perfect goodness and omnipotence, renders God impossible. The possibility of evil incompatible with God does exactly that. This simple argument has remarkable range: it serves as an ontological argument against the existence of God, but it can also serve as a new form of the problem of evil, allowing the resolution of that problem to rest on the mere possibility of evil incompatible with God. It can also  \nserve as a contingency argument against the existence of God: God must be a necessary being to adequately explain the existence of the contingent world, but cannot be. This one argument, which I call the ontological problem of evil, can thus play several roles in the philosophy of religion, and can demonstrate the metaphysical impossibility of God from several directions simultaneously.  \nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  \nI owe gratitude to many people for their support as I worked on this project over the years. First, to my advisor, Stephen Grover: the genesis of the argument of this work was developed in a course I took with him on the problem of evil more than a decade ago, and he was enormously patient as those thoughts developed into the present work in pieces and threads woven around the rest of my life. Graham Priest and Peter Simpson were enormously helpful in different ways as I worked out the details. I would also like to thank Brian Madden, Damien Dupont and Morgan Horowitz for their feedback, sometimes formal and sometimes casual, over the years.  \nOn a personal level, my lovely wife Karen and my beautiful little girl Natalie: there is no measure for the peace and joy they brought ","cbCaikVsMnzzntZy","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikVsMnzzntZy","pdf",1131008,3,1,151,"English","en",105,"# Evil and Necessity\n## From Findlay to Mackie\n## From Mackie to Findlay\n## What Does ‘Evil Incompatible with God’ Mean?\n## Possibility\n## Two Historical Advances in Possibility\n## The Possibility of Evil Incompatible with God\n## Why is Necessity Essential to God?\n## What Kind of Problem is This?\n## The Contingency Argument\n## Conclusions","[{\"question\":\"What is the core argument of the dissertation?\",\"answer\":\"The dissertation argues that if God exists, God exists necessarily. This necessary existence makes God impossible whenever a possible state of affairs is incompatible with God’s perfect goodness and omnipotence.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the dissertation relate the ontological disproof to the problem of evil?\",\"answer\":\"It proposes combining the ontological disproof with the problem of evil. The resulting view treats the resolution as depending on the mere possibility of evil incompatible with God.\"},{\"question\":\"What other role can the single argument play in philosophy of religion?\",\"answer\":\"The work describes an “ontological problem of evil” that can function not only as an ontological argument but also as a contingency argument against God by focusing on why a necessary being would be required to explain the contingent world.\"}]",1783306910,381,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"evil-and-the-ontological-disproof","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/evil-and-the-ontological-disproof/40208/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-16","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What is the core argument of the dissertation?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"The dissertation argues that if God exists, God exists necessarily. This necessary existence makes God impossible whenever a possible state of affairs is incompatible with God’s perfect goodness and omnipotence.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the dissertation relate the ontological disproof to the problem of evil?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"It proposes combining the ontological disproof with the problem of evil. The resulting view treats the resolution as depending on the mere possibility of evil incompatible with God.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What other role can the single argument play in philosophy of religion?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The work describes an “ontological problem of evil” that can function not only as an ontological argument but also as a contingency argument against God by focusing on why a necessary being would be required to explain the contingent world.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,125,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":121,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":124},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]