Human beings love to fictionalize evil--to terrorize each other with stories of defilement, horror, excruciating pain, and divine retribution. Beneath the surface of bewitchment and half-sick amusement, however, lies the realization that evil is real and that people must find a way to face and overcome it. What we require, Carl Jung suggested, is a morality of evil--a carefully thought out plan by which to manage the evil in ourselves, in others, and in whatever deities we posit. This book is not written from a Jungian perspective, but it is nonetheless an attempt to describe a morality of evil. One suspects that descriptions of evil and the so-called problem of evil have been thoroughly suffused with male interests and conditioned by masculine experience. This result could hardly have been avoided in a sexist culture, and recognizing the truth of such a claim does not commit us to condemn every male philosopher and theologian who has written on the problem. It suggests, rather, that we may get a clearer view of evil if we take a different standpoint. The standpoint I take here will be that of women; that is, I will attempt to describe evil from the perspective of women's experience.
Women and Evil
About the Book
Reviews
"In Women and Evil, Nel Noddings, philosopher and professor of education at Stanford University, presents carefully, clearly and often with eloquence a feminist reconstruction of evil. . . . Noddings hopes that men as well as women are beginning to understand that the warrior model threatens us all and so may be moved to entertain an alternate vision. I hope so too. I hope they will read this book."--Blythe McVicker Clinchy, American Journal of Education "In this engaging book, Nel Noddings examines several theological, philosophical, and psychological associations of women with evil in order to propose a counter-definition of evil from the perspective of women's experience. . . . [Women and Evil] is a valuable contribution to the analysis of evil and its alleviation."--Margaret R. Miles, Commonweal "Although I often find myself arguing with Noddings, I have no doubt her spirited and insightful book will be a boon to those of us who share her dedication to developing an ethics of care, not least because Noddings' ambitious vision reveals fundamental questions that this ethics must still confront."--Sara Ruddick, New Directions for WomenTable of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Evil and Ethical Terror
2. The Devil's Gateway
3. The Angel in the House
4· Toward a Phenomenology of Evil
5. Pain as Natural Evil
6. Helplessness: The Pain of Poverty
7· War
8. Terrorism, Torture, and Psychological Abuse
9· Educating for a Morality of Evil
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index