María Pía Lara, editor
Rethinking Evil
Contemporary Perspectives
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314 pages, 6 x 9 inches,
November 2001, Available worldwide
Categories: Philosophy; Ethics; Social & Political Thought; Intellectual History; Social Theory; Social Problems
November 2001, Available worldwide
Categories: Philosophy; Ethics; Social & Political Thought; Intellectual History; Social Theory; Social Problems
Downloadable eBook version available:
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"In an environment in which philosophy increasingly shies away from the big questions, this volume takes them on in a conscientious, analytical, and enlightening way. For Lara, the problem is not just that human beings suffer but that other human beings intentionally want to make them suffer, and to suffer in such extreme ways that the explanations offered by natural and social science seem as insufficient as those offered by older theodicies. The volume makes for engrossing reading; it sheds new light on an age-old issue."—Georgia Warnke, author of Legitimate Differences
"An important work because it inaugurates a distinctive secular approach to the problem of evil, which has generally been the province of theology and the philosophy of religion."—David M. Rasmussen, editor of The Handbook of Critical Theory
"An important work because it inaugurates a distinctive secular approach to the problem of evil, which has generally been the province of theology and the philosophy of religion."—David M. Rasmussen, editor of The Handbook of Critical Theory
This innovative volume will be welcomed by moral and political philosophers, social scientists, and anyone who reflects seriously on the twentieth century's heavy burden of war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other evidence of people's desire to harm one another. María Pía Lara brings together a provocative set of essays that reexamine evil in the context of a "postmetaphysical" world, a world that no longer equates natural and human evil and no longer believes in an omnipotent God. The question of how and why God permits evil events to occur is replaced by the question of how and why humans perform radically evil acts.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Contemporary Perspectives 1 María Pía Lara
Part One: A Critical Review of Evil
1. Is God Evil? Isabel Cabrera
2. What's the Problem of Evil? Susan Neiman
3. "Radical Finitude" and the Problem of Evil: Critical Comments on Wellmer's Reading of Jonas Peter Dews
Part Two: Evil and Moral Philosophy
4. Radical Evil: Kant at War with Himself, Richard J. Bernstein
5. Reflections on the Banality of (Radical) Evil: A Kantian Analysis, Henry E. Allison
6. The Polyhedron of Evil, Gustavo Leyva
7. An Evil Heart: Moral Evil and Moral Identity, Maeve Cooke
8. Understanding Evil: Arendt and the Final Solution, Robert Fine
Part Three: Postmetaphysical Approaches for a Theory of Evil
9. Toward a Sociology of Evil: Getting beyond Modernist Common Sense about the Alternative to "the Good," Jeffrey C. Alexander
10. The Evil That Men Do: A Meditation on Radical Evil from a Postmetaphysical Point of View Alessandro Ferrara
11. Major Offenders, Minor Offenders, Sergio Pérez
12. On Pain, the Suffering of Wrong, and Other Grievances: Responsibility, Manuel Cruz
13. Forgiveness and Oblivion: A New Form of Banality of Evil?, Carlos Pereda
Part Four: Narratives of Evil
14. "Happy Endings" hrs/hrs Unendings: Narratives of Evil, Carol L. Bernstein
15. Narrating Evil: A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment, María Pía Lara
Notes
List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Contemporary Perspectives 1 María Pía Lara
Part One: A Critical Review of Evil
1. Is God Evil? Isabel Cabrera
2. What's the Problem of Evil? Susan Neiman
3. "Radical Finitude" and the Problem of Evil: Critical Comments on Wellmer's Reading of Jonas Peter Dews
Part Two: Evil and Moral Philosophy
4. Radical Evil: Kant at War with Himself, Richard J. Bernstein
5. Reflections on the Banality of (Radical) Evil: A Kantian Analysis, Henry E. Allison
6. The Polyhedron of Evil, Gustavo Leyva
7. An Evil Heart: Moral Evil and Moral Identity, Maeve Cooke
8. Understanding Evil: Arendt and the Final Solution, Robert Fine
Part Three: Postmetaphysical Approaches for a Theory of Evil
9. Toward a Sociology of Evil: Getting beyond Modernist Common Sense about the Alternative to "the Good," Jeffrey C. Alexander
10. The Evil That Men Do: A Meditation on Radical Evil from a Postmetaphysical Point of View Alessandro Ferrara
11. Major Offenders, Minor Offenders, Sergio Pérez
12. On Pain, the Suffering of Wrong, and Other Grievances: Responsibility, Manuel Cruz
13. Forgiveness and Oblivion: A New Form of Banality of Evil?, Carlos Pereda
Part Four: Narratives of Evil
14. "Happy Endings" hrs/hrs Unendings: Narratives of Evil, Carol L. Bernstein
15. Narrating Evil: A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment, María Pía Lara
Notes
List of Contributors
Index