THE CITY

The City
consider it a problem. Nietzsche’s dismissal of the problem is very
much in keeping with his larger project to get “beyond good and
evil” by rejecting Christian morality and restoring noble morality.
If there is no God and no objective moral truth, we hardly have
reason to think this world should be good in the Christian sense of
supporting either our happiness or our moral virtue. And if there is
no free will and moral agency, moral evil as traditionally construed
is also eliminated.
It is hard to beat Nietzsche in terms of bracing rhetoric, but
the view he takes of those who see evil as a problem was perhaps
communicated more persuasively by a psychologist (although
Nietzsche saw himself as a psychologist as well as a philosopher),
namely, Sigmund Freud. Our culture, after all, is much more attuned
to psychological categories than philosophical ones, and much
inclined to interpret things psychologically than philosophically.
Freud’s influence here is due to his general thesis that religious belief
is an illusion fostered by childish needs for security in a frightening
world. The terrifying sense of helplessness that we feel as children is
mitigated by the loving protection of a father, and our lasting sense of
vulnerability leads us to cling to the idea of a more powerful father.
Thus the benevolent rule of a divine Providence allays our
fear of the dangers of life; the establishment of a moral worldorder
ensures the fulfillment of the demands of justice, which
have so often remained unfulfilled in human civilization;
and the prolongation of earthly existence in a future life
provides the local and temporal framework in which these
wish fulfillments shall take place. 11
To expect the world to be a friendly place where justice will prevail
and evil will be overcome and defeated is a childish fantasy not
worthy of adult assent. To experience evil as a problem in the
traditional sense is an embarrassment for adults, who come of age.
Neiman concisely expresses Freud’s view as follows: “If the problem
is a form of metaphysical whining, we can only hope to grow out of
it.” 12
Again, evil is not a problem in the sense that it is if one believes
11
Sigmund Freud, The Future of An Illusion, trans. W. D. Robson-Scott, revised and newly
edited by James Strachey (New York: Anchor Books, 1964), 47-48.
12
Evil in Modern Thought, 320.
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