Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

How old was Bertrand Russell in 1922? Not ALL that old, surely, because he had a lot of life left in him. The reason I ask (no reason to rush and look it up yourself, dear reader, I will do that for you shortly) is that Russell delivered a lecture in March 1922 that began with a rather supercilious reference to his age. The lecture, with the title, "Is there an Absolute Good?," answers the title question with a resounding "no." Furthermore, the "no" is true even if one interprets "absolute" so that it means something rather less demanding that it sounds. Russell meant to say that  there is no objective good. Important subject, but not why I'm writing this post. It is inspired by the opening of the lecture, which is this:   When the generation to which I belong were young, Moore persuaded us all that there is an absolute good. Most of us drew the inference that  we  were absolutely good, but this is not an essential part of Moore...

If a believer in God is going to have a theodicy, that is, a measured effort to “justify the ways of God to man,” he is going to have to go in one of three directions. There are only three. The problem is this. If God is all-powerful, then He can bring an end to evil. If God is ideally benevolent, then He wants to bring an end to evil. So: why is there evil?   Three answers: you can choose to remain silent and regard the question as an unanswerable mystery (which Job learns to do at the end of the OT book bearing his name).   Or you can define “all-powerful” in a way that solves the problem. Or you can define “benevolent” in a way that solves the problem. The problem is created by two constraints: that of power and that of goodness. Although no theodical authors would put it this way, some of them define “power” down and others define “goodness” down, loosening the one constraint or the other.   In the late 17th century, Leibniz famously defined "power" down. ...