Description
Book SynopsisWe regularly encounter appalling wrongdoing, with the media offering a depressing parade of violent assault, rape, and murder. Yet sometimes even the cynical and world-weary amongst us are taken aback. Sometimes we confront a crime so terrible, so horrendous, so deeply wrong, that we reach for the word ''evil''. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were not merely wrong, but evil. A serial killer who tortures their victims is not merely a bad person. They are evil. And as the Holocaust showed us, we must remain vigilant against the threat of evil. But what exactly is it? If we use the word ''evil'', are we buying into a naive Manichean worldview, in which two cosmic forces of good and evil are pitted against one another? Are we guilty of demonizing our enemies? How does ''evil'' go beyond what is merely bad or wrong?This book explores the answers that philosophers have offered to these questions. Luke Russell discusses why some philosophers think that evil is a myth or a fantasy, while others th
Trade ReviewSumming Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. * R. White, CHOICE *
Russell demonstrates that while certain familiar conceptions of evil are woefully inadequate, it is still possible to formulate simple and useful definitions of what it is for actions and people to be evil, and these definitions make it clear why caution is called for in labelling people evil. Anyone interested in ideas will enjoy and profit from reading this book. * Professor Michael Smith, Princeton University *
Table of Contents1: The philosophical puzzle of evil 2: The horror and incomprehensibility of evil 3: The psychological hallmark of evil 4: The banality of evil 5: An evil person 6: Are you evil? Is anyone evil? Index Further Reading
