Philosophical Review

The Philosophy of Evil by Paul SiwekReview by: Radoslav A. TsanoffThe Philosophical Review, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Oct., 1952), pp. 599-600Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of Philosophical ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2182532 .

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REVIEWS OF BOOKS

rity against what he called "the art of reading badly." But, while it is ironical to see writers who completely misrepresent Nietzsche condemn him for misunderstanding Christianity, it seems worth asking whether Nietzsche did not really read Christian documents badly. His concep- tion of Jesus, for example, is very questionable - though, some may feel, no more so than Tolstoy's, Luther's, or John's. Also, even as Plato misrepresented the Sophists - and Aristotle, Plato - Nietz- sche occasionally resorted to aphoristic caricatures with pedagogic intent. But without by any means swallowing them whole, we can often learn something from his criticisms of what he took to be the religion of Jesus' disciples, the Christianity of Paul, the outlook of Luther, and the shortcomings of modern Christianity.

Personally, having tried in my Nietzsche to give a detailed account of Nietzsche's philosophy and of his critique of Christianity, I would welcome a discerning discussion of Nietzsche's attack from a Christian point of view. The author of such a monograph might safely concede the justice of some of Nietzsche's strictures, and perhaps even add a few of his own. At least he should make up his mind whether he wants to vindicate everything that has ever called itself Christian or whether, like many of the greatest Christian thinkers, and especially Kierkegaard, he wants to reject most of it as really unchristian. He should be clear about what precisely he wishes to defend, and he should differentiate between ethics and moral behavior, and attend to the problematic nature of "Christian ethics." And he should know Nietzsche.

WALTER A. KAUFMANN Princeton University

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVIL. By PAUL SIWEK, S. J. New York, Ronald Press Company, I95I. Pp. ix, 226. $3.50. This volume contains in a revised and expanded form a series of

lectures delivered at the Gregorian University in Rome and later at the Philosophical Institute of Rio de Janeiro. The author "presumes to present a complete synthesis of the problem of Evil" (p. vi), con- sidering its implications in ontology, theodicy, and moral philosophy.

In the Introduction the problem of the origin of evil and that of the nature of evil are distinguished. Dealing with the latter problem - In what does evil consist? - the author regards evil as a privation rath- er than as a negation. Evil is an obstacle or barrier to perfection. "Good is that which promotes immanent finality, Evil is that which opposes it" (p. si). Evil is thus "a disturbance from which the being suffers, a disruption of its harmony, an exhaustion in the face of its destiny" (p. 52). From this Thomistic-Aristotelian functional view of

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THE PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW

positive and negative values, the fields of the organic world and sensi- tive life are examined: evil is "all that hinders a being's full develop- ment" (p. 50) ; it is disgust or pain. The rise of sensitive life in the human scale of intelligence involves a greater span of suffering. Man's pursuit of perfection is an experience of "continual tension, in con- stantly renewed effort to surpass himself" (p. 99), and in continual regret or remorse over his actual imperfection. This tragic problem of life can be solved only when man learns from religion to contemplate his true career as immortal, only as he recognizes the eternal "law of conservation of spiritual energy" (p. I41). In the eternal range of God's plan for us, all finite evils are transcended in final ideal consum- mation.

In the latter part of his book the author undertakes a historical- critical survey of optimism and pessimism. This exposition seems to be rather impatient and is too hurried to yield a thorough analysis even of the major doctrines.

A serious defect of this book is its failure to consider St. Augustine's contribution to its theme. On page I5 Dr. Siwek refers in four words to St. Augustine's importance for the student of the nature of evil and never mentions him again. The reader looks in vain for a discus- sion of the capital passage in De civitate dei, xii: 6, or for a mention of the Jansenist controversy or of Pascal's Provinciales: and this in a book in which more than one hundred authorities ancient and modern are cited in the text and footnotes. In view of St. Augustine's outstand- ing role throughout the long history of Christian theodicy, the learned Jesuit theologian's negligence in this matter is, to say the least, very perplexing.

RADOSLAV A. TSANOFF

The Rice Institute

MAN IS NOT ALONE. A Philosophy of Religion. By ABRAHAM J. HESCHEL. New York, Farrar, Straus and Young; Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, I95I. Pp. 305. $3.75.

It is not the will to believe that we lack, says the author, who is associate professor of Jewish ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary, but the will to wonder. We need to wonder that there are facts in the world, that time unfolds, that the ineffable brings man and mystery together, that meaning overflows being, that the meaning of even finite things is infinite, and that the existence of the world is "the most unbelievable fact." With a rich variety of phrase, the author attempts throughout the book to give expression to this sense of wonder. "Those to whom awareness of the ineffable is a con- stant state of mind," he says, "know that the mystery is not an excep-

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