346 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



we cannot recognise the existence of any scheme of 

 retribution. With the admission of this highest pro- 

 blem of philosophy and its ultimate insolubility for the 

 human intellect, 1 Lotze reminds us of the many in- 



1 The principal passages in Lotze 's 

 writings which refer to this sub- 

 ject are to be found, first, in the 

 Lecture Course on Philosophy of 

 Religion ( 75-83) where the grave 

 problems are pointed out "which 

 arise out of the actual existence of 

 evil, for the order of things it 

 corresponds to, the ideal of God [as 

 metaphysically explained], would 

 have to be the faultless realisation 

 of the highest Good. All answers 

 which are wont to be given in the 

 form of a Theodicy are quite in- 

 adequate." These answers attempt 

 first to deny or minimise evil, but 

 the real evil, according to Lotze, 

 does not consist in the absence of a 

 good but in the pain which this 

 absence creates. It is equally use- 

 less to call evil merely relative, and 

 to maintain that from the Divine 

 point of view the existing dis- 

 harmony disappears, for to finite 

 beings the sorrow of this disharmony 

 would not equally disappear ; and 

 "lastly, it is incorrect to consider 

 physical evil merely as something 

 accidental or accessory. It is not 

 only intercurrent, but the whole 

 existence of the animal kingdom is 

 systematically founded upon the 

 destruction of one by the other, 

 and this with a cruelty which is 

 anticipated in the natural impulses 

 of the different kinds." Other 

 attempts to solve the problem are 

 criticised, and the whole discussion 

 summed up in the following words : 

 " The results of our reflection con- 

 stitute exactly the ground on which 

 at all times pessimistic views have 

 grown up ; these may eventually 

 admit what might theoretically be 

 established regarding the one com- 

 prehensive Power which we must 



assume in order to make the course 

 of things intelligible, but they, on 

 the other hand, deny our right to 

 transform this conception of power 

 through the predicate of goodness 

 into that of the Deity ; they rather 

 see in the course of things nothing 

 but the blind unfolding of a prim- 

 ordial ground which does not work 

 for the realisation of happiness, but 

 which, in individual minds, becomes 

 conscious of its misfortune, and 

 leaves nothing but the longing for 

 annihilation. One may see in this 

 an extreme exaggeration, a complete 

 ignoring of the good things which, 

 after all, reality presents along with 

 the evil ones ; but it must be 

 admitted that theoretically it is 

 impossible whilst discarding pessi- 

 mism to prove that optimism which 

 follows consistently from our re- 

 ligious conception of God. ... If, 

 in the face of this and fully renounc- 

 ing every theoretical proof, we are 

 nevertheless convinced of the truth 

 of the religious belief, we consider 

 this conviction as a resolution of 

 the character. And religion really 

 begins for us with this theoretically 

 indemonstrable but nevertheless 

 actually admitted sense of obliga- 

 tion, of being controlled by that 

 Infinite Reality, the truth of which 

 we cannot theoretically demon- 

 strate." The second important 

 passage will be found in the fifth 

 chapter of the 9th Book of the 

 ' Microcosmus,' in which Lotze 

 desires to "lay stress upon the 

 decisive and altogether insurmount- 

 able difficulty which stands in the 

 way of his [highest philosophic] 

 Belief being carried out scientifically 

 i.e., upon the existence of evil 

 and sin in nature and history." 



