AnalPhilosopher

Bruce A. Russell (no relation to Bertrand) is one of the important people in my life. I decided in law school in the early 1980s that I wanted to be a professor of philosophy rather than a practicing lawyer. Fortunately for me, I was at Wayne State University, which had (and has) a very good philosophy department. Somehow I persuaded the dean of the law school that philosophy courses were relevant to my degree program. To my surprise, she allowed me to take three of them. Two of the courses—Twentieth Century Analytic Ethics and History of Ethics—were taught by Bruce, who immediately became my mentor. (The third course, Philosophy of Language, was taught by T. Michael [Mike] McKinsey.) Bruce and Mike wrote letters of recommendation for me when I applied to graduate programs, and, well, the rest is history.

Bruce and I have kept in touch over the years, first by snail-mail and then by e-mail. During the past twenty-odd years he has grown old and feeble, whereas I have become more vigorous. But seriously, I owe much to Bruce, both personally and professionally. Sine qua non. The other day, Bruce sent a copy of his latest essay on the problem of evil. It is scheduled to appear in a widely used philosophical anthology. I asked Bruce whether I could post it, and today, having checked with the editor, he gave me permission. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it (and learn from it). No, I didn't get my religious skepticism from Bruce. I was a skeptic long before I met him. It was Bruce, however, who persuaded me that I'm an atheist and not merely an agnostic.