THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED 166192 THE NATURE OF EVIL BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE PROBLEM OF IMMORTALITY: Studies in Personality and Value THE NATURE OF EVIL BY RADOSLAV A. TSANOFF, PH.D. PBOFESgOB OF PHILOSOPHY, THE KICK IN8TITDTB Nrtufork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1931 COPYRIGHT, 1931, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY ALL, RIGHTS RESERVED NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1931 SET UP AND ELECTBOTYPED BY T. MOREY A SON PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER PREFACE If we conceive of philosophy as man's cosmic orientation, contemporary thought reveals two strains rich in philosoph- ical significance. On the one hand is the radical reinterpre- tation of cosmological ideas necessitated by the experimental and theoretical advance of physical science. By stimulating metaphysical interest in scientists and scientific discipline in metaphysicians, this advance has led to a healthy rap- prochement between the two. On the other hand is the in- sistent demand for a philosophy of value that will be more than a conciliatory epilogue to stark naturalism: for an ade- quate account of value and of its role in nature. Both of these strains in modern thought concern intimately the prob- lem of man's cosmic status: what is man, and how is nature mindful of him and of his values? Thus both natural science and man's own self-criticism are making contemporary philo- sophy increasingly significant and alive. The critical constructive thought of today and of tomorrow cannot neglect the record of the facts of nature supplied in the amazing advance of the physical and biological sciences. But nature is not limited to what telescope and microscope and test-tube reveal: the career and the character of nature are disclosed likewise in the lives and thoughts of men, in man's devotions and ideals, illusions and tragic frustrations: these are all facts relevant to what we may be allowed to call the Higher Behaviorism. The resolve not to ignore them may save us from a too precipitate and narrow 'naturalism' in cosmology, and surely the study of them leads us into the laboratory of the science and the philosophy of value, vii viii PREFACE In an earlier volume entitled The Problem of Immortality: Studies in Personality and Value the endeavor was made to examine man's conception of himself as more than a mere episode in the cosmic process, man's assured confidence in the permanent reality of his values and of himself as the bearer of them, and thus to understand the significance of man's claims to a certain kind of destiny. In this work we turn as it were to the other side of the picture. If the idea of immortality is the peak of man's aspiration, the tragic sense of evil is the abyss that ever threatens to engulf him and his ambitions, or at any rate to sober his self-esteem. It imposes a reconsideration of the values to which man com- mits his faith in himself and in nature. Pessimism and theo- dicy both reveal man's character: his grievous sense of his overwhelming problem, and his tireless effort to overcome it. The characteristic worth of man is thus essentially bound up with this tragic enterprise, and upon the adequate con- ception of the nature of evil hangs the whole philosophy of value. The aim of this short preface has been to suggest the philo- sophical why and wherefore of this book rather than to give a preliminary tabulated statement of its contents. For the latter the reader is referred to the detailed Table of Con- tents which follows. As will be observed, a theme of such wide human interest reaches beyond the strict field of tech- nical philosophy into the domains of religion and literature. My obligations are as various as the contacts in which the complexity of my theme has involved me. An effort has been made to make due and accurate acknowledgment in the Notes, at the end of the volume. Parts of this work have been published separately, and I am grateful for permission to include here material that first appeared in the pages of the Rice Institute Pamphlet and the Philosophical Review. The final chapter is being used as a contribution to a co- PREFACE ix operative volume on Contemporary Tendencies in American Idealism. I wish also to thank the Cambridge University Press for allowing me to quote from Mr. Geoffrey L. Bicker- steth's translation of the poems of Leopardi. Shorter quota- tions from other works have been acknowledged in the Notes. Passages from foreign writers have been quoted in English, with reference to the original in the Notes and also cross- reference to the English translation cited. In the case of* quoted poetry, the original text is given in the Notes. If no English version is cited in a note, the translation of the re- spective passage in the text, prose or poetry, is one for which I must be held responsible. My colleague Professor Charles W. Morris has very kindly assisted me in the reading of the proofs. During the entire course of this work I have had the constant help of my wife. RADOSLAV A. TSANOFF. HOUSTON, TEXAS, November, 1930. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL IN THE GREAT RELIGIONS 1 What makes evil a problem? Temperamental complacency and tragic sense of frustration. The optimist's problem of evil and the pessimist's problem of good. The main varieties of optimism and pessimism. The disdain of the finite in Brahmanic India. Buddhist Karma and the gospel of Nir- vana. The problem of evil in Greek tragedy, and the treat- ment of it in Greek philosophy. The Zoroastrian explanation of evil in terms of cosmic dualism: Ahura-Mazda and Ahri- man. Theodicy in the Old Testament, and the perplexities of Prophetic Monotheism. Job and Ecclesiastes. CHAPTER II. THE CHRISTIAN-MEDIEVAL TRADI- TION 37 Twofold heresy in early Christian theodicy: excess of world- contempt (Gnosticism and Manicheanism) and excess of moral self-reliance (Pelagianism). St. Augustine's orthodoxy in opposition to these two. The Augustinian explanation of evil in terms of perverse and misdirected human choice. Divine grace and predestination. The dilemmas of Augus- tinian theodicy. Medieval studied scorn of this world: the treatise On the Contempt of The World by Pope Innocent III. The ethics and the theodicy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ. The Renaissance estimate of human life. The Circe of Giovan Battista Gelli. CHAPTER III. PASCAL'S DESPAIR OF REASON . 61 Pascal's precocity. Early scientific achievement followed by doubt as to the real competence of the intellect. Conversion to Jansenism; controversy with the Jesuits; the Provincial Letters. Calvinist, Jesuit, Thomist, Jansenist-Augustinian doctrines of divine grace and human destiny. Pascal's Thoughts: the case for Christian faith and the case for scepti- cism. Epictetus, Montaigne and Pascal. The dilemma of doubt and Pascal's wager of faith. The disdain of reason and xi xii CONTENTS FAGS the will to believe; the hazards of Scotism in theology. Crit- icism and positive estimate of Pascal. CHAPTER IV. SCEPTICISM AND THEODICY . 88 Theological discomfiture resulting from seventeenth century science and philosophy Bayle's scepticism; his critique of Augustinian theodicy; devastating influence of his Historical- Critical Dictionary. The reply to Bayle in Leibniz's Theo- dicy: suffering and sin referred ultimately to the imperfection " essentially characteristic of finite being in this best of all pos- sible worlds." Criticism of Leibniz's treatment of the prob- lem of evil. Archbishop King's Essay on the Origin of Evil. CHAPTER V. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY OPTIMISM . Ill Shaftesbury's cult of cosmic harmony, and eighteenth century complacency. Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith: benig- nant Providence and laissez faire. The theodicy in Bishop Butler's Analogy. "Optimism run mad": David Hartley and Abraham Tucker. Bolingbroke's sophistries and the philosophical confusion of Pope's Essay on Man. The popu- lar philosophy of the Enlightenment in Germany: Reimarus and Mendelssohn; Maupertuis. Echoes of Pope in German poetry: Brockes, Haller; Wieland. The sharp reaction against complacent optimism: Mandeville's Fable of the Bees; Jonathan Swift; Johnson's Rasselas. The disrupting in- fluence of Hume's empiricism. Balancing and calculation: Young's Night Thoughts. CHAPTER VI. THE DESPAIR OF CIVILIZATION . 145 The modern cult of the intellect and of civilization, and the romantic revolt of primitive feeling. The antithesis of Vol- taire and Rousseau. -Voltaire's early optimism and his later reaction against Leibniz and Pope: the Poem on the Lisbon Earthquake; the irony of Candide. Rousseau's Confessions: his longing for the ideal and his leaning towards the degener- ate. His prize-essays: the doctrine of the corruption of hu- man nature by civilization. Rousseau's conception of nature. His doctrine of the emancipation of man from the shackles of civilization. Voltaire, Rousseau, and Tolstoy. Tolstoy's radical reinterpretation of Jesus' gospel: the five command- ments of the Sermon on the Mount. Condemnation of mod- ern civilization as resting on violence and exploitation of man by man. Tolstoy's religion of love and the simple life. of Critique social pessimism : civilization involves the spread of the whole field of human activity and of all available values, CONTENTS xiii PAGE positive and negative, showing how high man can rise but also how low he can sink. CHAPTER VII. THE DEVIL IN MODERN POETRY . 176 Milton's Satan and the theodicy of Paradise Lost. Byron's Cain as a romantic drama of revolt.