Evil

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-19-991545-3
Verlag: ACADEMIC

Buch, Englisch, 528 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 901 g

The code of conduct for a leading tech company famously says "Don't Be Evil." But what exactly is evil? Is it just badness by another name--the shadow side of good? Or is it something more substantive--a malevolent force or power at work in the universe? These are some of the ontological questions that philosophers have grappled with for centuries. But evil also raises perplexing epistemic and psychological questions. Can we really know evil? Does a victim know evil differently than a perpetrator or witness? What motivates evil-doers? Satan's rebellion, Iago's machinations, and Stalin's genocides may be hard to understand in terms of ordinary reasons, intentions, beliefs, and desires. But what about the more "banal" evils performed by technocrats in a collective: how do we make sense of Adolf Eichmann's self-conception as just an effective bureaucrat deserving of a promotion?

Evil: A History collects thirteen essays that tell the story of evil in western thought, starting with its origins in ancient Hebrew wisdom literature and classical Greek drama all the way to Darwinism and Holocaust theory. Thirteen interspersed reflections contextualize philosophical developments by looking at evil through the eyes of animals, poets, mystics, witches, librettists, film directors, and even a tech product manager.

Evil: A History will enlighten readers about one of the most alluring and difficult topics in philosophy and intellectual life, and will challenge their assumptions about the very nature of evil.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chignell

Chignell, Andrew P.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction

- Andrew P. Chignell

- Chapter 1. Evil, Unintelligibility, Radicality: Footnotes to a Correspondence between Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers

- Andrew P. Chignell

- Chapter 2. Kakology: A Study of Some Evil Words

- Antonia Ruppel

- Chapter 3. Evil in the Hebrew Bible: The Case of the Wisdom Literature

- Carol A. Newsom

- Reflection: The Early History of Satan: Before the satan Was Evil

- Esther Hamori

- Reflection: Meat and Evil

- Matthew C. Halteman

- Chapter 4. Explaining Evil in Plato, Euripedes, and Seneca

- Rachana Kamtekar

- Chapter 5. Explaining Evil in Late Antiquity: Plotinus and his Critics

- Dominic J. O'Meara

- Chapter 6. Augustine on Evil

- Peter King

- Reflection: Hell as a Problem of Evil in Medieval Women Mystics

- Clark West

- Chapter 7. "but draw not nigh this tree": Evil in Early Islamic Thought

- Nadja Germann

- Chapter 8. Evil and Late Medieval Thought

- Brian Davies

- Reflection: Dante and the Evil of Treachery: Narrative and Philosophy

- Eleonore Stump

- Reflection: Calvinism and the Demonic in the Divine

- Derk Pereboom

- Reflection: Feminine Evil and Witchcraft

- Sarah Pinnock

- Chapter 9. Evils, Privations, and the Early Moderns

- Samuel Newlands

- Reflection: Is Don Giovanni Evil?

- Elaine Sisman

- Reflection: Kant's Journey on Evil

- George Huxford

- Chapter 10. Evil in Classical German Philosophy: Selfhood, Deception, and Despair

- Allen Wood

- Reflection: Leopardi, "Everything is Evil"

- Silvia De Toffoli

- Chapter 11. What Happened to Evil?

- Susan Neiman

- Chapter 12. Evil, Natural Science, and Animal Suffering

- Eric Martin and Eric Watkins

- Reflection: Cinematic Evil

- Christy Mag Uidhir

- Reflection: The Banality of Evil

- Jennifer Geddes

- Chapter 13. Evil after the Holocaust

- Gabriel Motzkin

- Reflection: Satanically Great Instigators and Banal Compliers

- Avishai Margalit

- Reflection: On Google and Not Being Evil

- Wesley Chan

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Andrew P. Chignell is Professor at Princeton University. He has published articles in early modern philosophy (especially on the work of Immanuel Kant), epistemology and the ethics of belief, aesthetics, and the philosophy of religion. He is currently writing a book on Kantian theories of hope.