Editing Problem of evil (section)

===Moral rationalism===
"In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries rationalism about morality was repeatedly used to reject strong divine command theories of ethics".<ref name="J. B. Schneewind">{{cite journal |last1=Schneewind |first1=J. B. |title=Hume and the Religious Significance of Moral Rationalism |journal=Hume Studies |date=2000 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=211–223 |doi=10.1353/hms.2000.a385723 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/SCHHAT-11}}</ref> Such [[moral rationalism]] asserts that morality is based on reason.<ref name="Shaun Nichols">{{cite journal |last1=Nichols |first1=Shaun |title=How Psychopaths Threaten Moral Rationalism Is it Irrational to Be Amoral? |journal=The Monist |date=2002 |volume=85 |issue=2 |doi=10.5840/monist200285210 |url=https://www.pdcnet.org/monist/content/monist_2002_0085_0002_0285_0303}}</ref> Rorty refers to [[Immanuel Kant]] as an example of a "pious rationalist".<ref name="Rorty"/>{{rp|xv}} According to Shaun Nichols, "The Kantian approach to moral philosophy is to try to show that ethics is based on practical reason".<ref name="Shaun Nichols"/> The problem of evil then becomes, "how [it is] possible for a rational being of good will to be immoral".<ref name="Rorty"/>{{rp|xiii}}

Kant wrote an essay on theodicy criticizing it for attempting too much without recognizing the limits of human reason.<ref name=dembski11>[http://www.designinference.com/documents/2003.04.CTNS_theodicy.pdf "Making the Task of Theodicy Impossible?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916165136/http://www.designinference.com/documents/2003.04.CTNS_theodicy.pdf |date=16 September 2012 }}, William Dembski (2003), Baylor University, pp. 11, 12</ref> Kant did not think he had exhausted all possible theodicies, but did assert that any successful one must be based on nature rather than philosophy.<ref>See Kant's essay, "Concerning the Possibility of a Theodicy and the Failure of All Previous Philosophical Attempts in the Field" (1791). p. 291. Stephen Palmquist explains why Kant refuses to solve the problem of evil in "Faith in the Face of Evil", Appendix VI of [http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/ksp2 Kant's Critical Religion] (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000).</ref> While a successful philosophical theodicy had not been achieved in his time, added Kant, he asserted there was no basis for a successful anti-theodicy either.<ref>[http://www.designinference.com/documents/2003.04.CTNS_theodicy.pdf 'Making the Task of Theodicy Impossible?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916165136/http://www.designinference.com/documents/2003.04.CTNS_theodicy.pdf |date=16 September 2012 }}, William Dembski (2003), Baylor University, p. 12</ref>