HKB
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Often appears with: the problem of evil and theodicy · the nature and attributes of God · providence and divine governance · human kings vs god · divine governance · anthropomorphism
Usually: argument (1) · skepticism (1)
“A king should generally have nothing so much at heart as to keep his subjects free from oppression.” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von, Theodicy · precept
Responding to Bayle’s maxims, Leibniz denies the analogy that God would ‘crush vice before birth’; unlike a human king, God never errs and his governance permits evils for the good of the whole.
things possible what produced the best effect together, and since vice entered in by this door, God would not have been altogether good, altogether wise if he had excluded it. [199] 125. X. 'The way to evince the greatest hatred for vice is not indeed to allow it to prevail for a long time and then chastise it, but to crush it before its birth, that is, prevent it from showing itself anywhere. A king, for example, w…