Description
Book SynopsisThis timely book by philosopher Peter Dews explores the idea of evil, one of the most problematic terms in the contemporary moral vocabulary. Despite the widespread abuse and political manipulation of the term, Dews argues that we cannot do without it. Yet our intuitions about evil pull us in different directions.
Trade Review"At a time when the word 'evil' is being used in blatantly ideological ways, it is more than ever necessary to examine the philosophical history of this elusive concept.
The Idea of Evil is a splendidly lucid, erudite and incisive exploration of the concept of evil in an impressive array of thinkers, which never loses sight of the bearing of this investigation on the politics of the present."
Terry Eagleton, University of Manchester "For those of us who until today had a certain mistrust in the current fashion for reintroducing the concept of 'Evil' into philosophical discourse, reading the new book by Peter Dews is an intellectual cure and a theoretical adventure. Certainly the best book on the topic I know of."
Axel Honneth, J. W. Goethe-Universität
"Can the concept of evil be taken seriously without a resort to religion, and without losing all faith in emancipatory politics? Peter Dews' timely, scrupulous and passionate reading of post-Kantian philosophy aspires to acknowledge that we are what's wrong with the world, but without destroying the hope that we might nevertheless change that world for the better."
Stephen Mulhall, University of Oxford
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations vi
Preface viii
Introduction 1
1 Kant: The Perversion of Freedom 17
2 Fichte and Schelling: Entangled in Nature 46
3 Hegel: A Wry Theodicy 81
4 Schopenhauer and Nietzsche: Suffering from Meaninglessness 118
5 Levinas: Ethics à l’Outrance 158
6 Adorno: Radical Evil as a Category of the Social 187
Conclusion 212
Bibliography 235
Index 246
