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I suggest that the search for Adam Smith’s theodicy is likely to be in vain. The paper begins with a brief history of approaches to evil, emphasizing the context in which they arose, and the questions authors were addressing. Approaches most relevant to Adam Smith include those of Augustine and Calvin, and the early modern theodicies of Leibniz, Samuel Clarke and William King, as well as the attacks on them by Bayle and Voltaire. Scottish Enlightenment writers were not terribly interested in theodicy, though Hutcheson and Kames did devote space to their versions of problems of evil. David Hume’s Dialogues on Natural Religion are often taken to be classic statement of the problem of theodicy and argument against religious belief, but his concern was to demolish rationalistic theodicies rather than religious belief or practice. The paper then turns to Smith’s writings, considering similarities and differences to these approaches to evil. Smith emphasizes the wisdom and beneficence of God, and that evils we observe are part of a larger providential plan. He makes no attempt to justify the God in the face of evil, and in this respect Smith shares more with Augustine and Calvin than he does with the early modern theodicists. Smith’s approach to evil is simple and ameliorative. Smith’s approach contrasts with early nineteenth century English political economists, from Malthus onwards, for whom theodicy was important. Whatever view we take of the theodicists project of justifying an all-powerful and good God in the face of evil may, we still struggle to make sense of economic suffering and evil.

Is liberalism premised on an unrealistically individualist anthropology? In one regularly told story about modernity, the earliest liberals grounded their arguments for political liberty in a picture of human nature that centered on our moral autonomy, perhaps epitomized best in Kantian thought. However, a range of critics have now compellingly argued that such accounts of our agency are descriptively inaccurate, and that normative social projects beginning from such flawed foundations are thus unstable. While this paper accepts this criticism of individualist anthropologies, it proposes that this need not identify a problem with liberalism overall. To make this case, this paper turns to Adam Smith, who grounded his early advocacy of liberalism in an anthropology grounded in natural theology that depicts us as morally interconnected, rather than as autonomous, and as always morally impressionable. As it will explain, Smith presumed an account of character as integrally related to and influenced by the agent’s social context, for both better and worse. Furthermore, he wove his attentiveness to this complex interaction between the agent and their context into both his economic analyses and political proposals. Smith’s social vision thus illustrates how a strong regard for individual liberty is fully compatible with a sophisticated anthropology that recognizes our malleability as moral agents – and even with political proposals that capitalize upon this malleability. Smith’s thought thus offers useful resources for contemporary proponents of liberalism who wish to value the dignity of individuals without basing that valuation in unrealistic abstractions, or ignoring the responsibilities engendered by the fact of our ongoing moral formation by our social contexts.

Adam Smith sees religion both as having a useful and a dangerous role. People create gods to explain what they do not understand and appease their desire of justice when human justice is perceived to fail. These are socially useful functions of religion. But when religion is used as a political tool and is used for state capture purposes, then it becomes a dangerous and destructive force in society.

Religion and philosophy satisfy the basic human needs of understanding, belonging, and finding meaning. They provide tranquility of mind and satisfy the desire to be loved and lovable. However, they present their own failings and can counter each other in positive and negative ways, that threaten the communities of beliefs they form and their interactions. An appropriate institutional framework can control the fanaticism and sectarianism that can come with established religion and philosophy.

The Scottish Enlightenment, which gave birth to classical liberal thought and political economy, developed out of a strong theological tradition and was marked by significant theological conflict. Most people understand the Scottish Enlightenment through the works of David Hume, Adam Smith, and their intellectual circle of Moderate clergy and literati. Though this group represents the dominant strain of thinking in the Scottish Enlightenment, one should not neglect other important contributions made by more orthodox clergy and literati. Comparing the ideas of less well-known, but leading figures of the Moderate and the orthodox literati, Hugh Blair and John Witherspoon, reveals different views on doctrines related to salvation, human nature, and God’s providence, as well as on the nature of moral judgment and education. These differences provide important context for understanding the ideas and arguments of more influential philosophers like Smith and Hume.

In Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith reasons about how a change in one thing, A, is attended by a change in another thing, B. In expounding on such bivariate relationships, Smith sometimes seems to go out of his way to posit a state of the world in which the relationship would break down. That feature suggests an irony about knowing how a change in B attends a change in A. We might think we understand the bivariate relationship, but it holds only for certain states of the world. The relationship is circumstanced. The more one studies the Moral Sentiments, the more one realizes that circumstantiality suffuses its teachings. My discussion arrives at a place of doubt about the most important bivariate relationship – that between approval from our conscience and doing good. Smith seems to suggest, particularly at the end of his life, that a person can best know the relationship between his conscience’s approval and his doing good under circumstances of his having frank and open friendships. The implication for politics is that we want that kind of government that best conduces to frank and open friendships.

This paper aims to Solar photovoltaic (PV) power can significantly impact the power system because of its intermittent nature. Hence, an accurate solar PV power forecasting model is required for appropriate power system planning.

In this paper, a long short-term memory (LSTM)-based double deep Q-learning (DDQL) neural network (NN) is proposed for forecasting solar PV power indirectly over the long-term horizon. The past solar irradiance, temperature and wind speed are used for forecasting the solar PV power for a place using the proposed forecasting model.

The LSTM-based DDQL NN reduces over- and underestimation and avoids gradient vanishing. Thus, the proposed model improves the forecasting accuracy of solar PV power using deep learning techniques (DLTs). In addition, the proposed model requires less training time and forecasts solar PV power with improved stability.

The proposed model is trained and validated for several places with different climatic patterns and seasons. The proposed model is also tested for a place with a temperate climatic pattern by constructing an experimental solar PV system. The training, validation and testing results have confirmed the practicality of the proposed solar PV power forecasting model using LSTM-based DDQL NN.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to energy communities (ECs) in the tourism domain as voluntary initiatives combining noncommercial aims with environmental and social community objectives. ECs offer a range of potential benefits for local communities, tourism providers and destinations, including reduced energy costs, enhanced sustainability practices and a unique selling point for attracting environmentally conscious tourists.

This perspective paper uses a narrative literature review of academic papers, the primary European Union legislation relevant to ECs and online articles to provide an analysis of the current landscape.

This paper presents the typical benefits, categorized into financial, social and environmental, members of ECs can experience. Highlights include the possible functions of ECs for tourism providers and destinations. In addition to reinforcing sustainable practices, ECs create opportunities for regional value creation, exerting a strong potential to influence destination development. They can become an integral part of governing tourism destinations, driving green social innovation and contributing to tourism branding.

This paper provides early recognition and a clear articulation of the benefits and possible functions ECs offer to the tourism domain. By highlighting their potential positive impact on the environment, society, tourism businesses and policy, this research encourages further investigation in this field.

这篇观点论文的目的是引起人们对能源社区（ECs）在旅游领域的关注。能源社区是将非商业目标与环境和社区目标相结合的自发组织。ECs为当地社区、旅游供应商和旅游景点提供了一系列潜在好处, 包括降低能源成本、增强可持续发展的实践, 以及吸引有环保意识游客的独特卖点。

这篇观点论文提供叙事性文献综述, 涵盖了学术论文, 与ECs相关的主要欧联立法, 和网上对当前相关情况的分析文章。

本文介绍了ECs会员可能经常体验到的好处, 分为财务、社会和环境类别。重要的结果包括ECs对旅游供应商和景点来说的潜在功能。除了加强可持续发展实践外, ECs还为区域经济发展带来了机会, 具有强大的影响当地发展的潜力。它们可以成为管理旅游目的地的一个重要部分, 推动绿色社会创新并有助于旅游品牌推广。

本文是较早认识到并清晰阐述了ECs为旅游领域提供的好处和可能的功能。通过强调它们对环境、社会、旅游企业和政策的潜在积极影响, 这项研究鼓励未来更多的研究对这一领域的进一步探讨。

El propósito de este artículo de perspectiva es destacar el papel de las Comunidades Energéticas (CE) en el campo del turismo como iniciativas voluntarias que combinan fines no comerciales con objetivos comunitarios ambientales y sociales. Las CE ofrecen una variedad de beneficios potenciales para las comunidades locales, los proveedores turísticos y los destinos turísticos, incluyendo la reducción de costes energéticos, la mejoras en las prácticas de sostenibilidad y una propuesta única de venta para atraer a turistas concienciados del medio ambiente.

Este artículo de perspectiva utiliza una revisión narrativa de la literatura académica, la principal legislación de la Unión Europea relativa a las CE y artículos online para proporcionar un análisis del panorama actual de las CE.

Este artículo presenta los principales beneficios que los miembros de las CE pueden experimentar en las categorias financieras, sociales y ambientales. Se destacan las posibles funciones de las CE para los proveedores turísticos y los destinos turísticos. Además de reforzar las prácticas sostenibles, las CE crean oportunidades para la creación de valor regional, ejerciendo un marcado potencial para influir en el desarrollo de los destinos. Éstas pueden convertirse en una parte integral de la gobernanza de los destinos turísticos, impulsando la innovación social verde y contribuyendo a la marca turística.

Este artículo ofrece un reconocimiento temprano y una articulación clara de los beneficios y posibles funciones que las CE ofrecen al ámbito del turismo. Al resaltar su potencial impacto positivo en el medio ambiente, la sociedad, las empresas turísticas y la política, este estudio impulsa una mayor investigación en este campo.

This chapter seeks to shed light on the many factors that contribute to people becoming school shooters. These factors are divided into four domains: biological, psychological, social, and cultural. At the biological level, this chapter explores the potential influence of genetics, pre- and post-natal development, and body-related issues that may affect the perpetrators' sense of self. A psychological typology is presented, consisting of psychopathic, psychotic, and traumatized school shooters. Socially, school shooters often have multiple setbacks, failures, and rejections that contribute to their distress. Finally, the cultural domain includes such factors as media violence, role models for killing, and ideologies of hatred and supremacy. Rather than attributing school shootings to a simplistic cause such as bullying, this chapter discusses a wide range of potential influences that combine to cause mass attacks at schools.