CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

xi

INTRODUCTION

1

CHAPTER ONE: FIRE FROM HEAVEN

14

God’s Advocates: Leibniz and Pope

18

Newton of the Mind: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

36

Divided Wisdom: Immanuel Kant

57

Real and Rational: Hegel and Marx

84

In Conclusion

109

CHAPTER TWO: CONDEMNING THE ARCHITECT

113

Raw Material: Bayle’s Dictionary

116

Voltaire’s Destinies

128

The Impotence of Reason: David Hume

148

End of the Tunnel: The Marquis de Sade

170

Schopenhauer: The World as Tribunal

196

CHAPTER THREE: ENDS OF AN ILLUSION

203

Eternal Choices: Nietzsche on Redemption

206

On Consolation: Freud vs. Providence

227

CHAPTER FOUR: HOMELESS

238

Earthquakes: Why Lisbon?

240

Mass Murders: Why Auschwitz?

250

Losses: Ending Modern Theodicies

258

Intentions: Meaning and Malice

267

Terror: After September 11

281

Remains: Camus, Arendt, Critical Theory, Rawls

288

Origins: Sufficient Reason

314

Afterword to the Paperback Edition

329

Notes

351

Bibliography

361

Index

369