This timely book by philosopher Peter Dews explores the idea of evil, one of the most problematic terms in the contemporary moral vocabulary.
- Surveys the intellectual debate on the nature of evil over the past two hundred years
- Engages with a broad range of discourses and thinkers, from Kant and the German Idealists, via Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, to Levinas and Adorno
- Suggests that the concept of moral evil touches on a neuralgic point in western culture
- Argues that, despite the widespread abuse and political manipulation of the term ‘evil’, we cannot do without it
- Concludes that if we use the concept of evil, we must acknowledge its religious dimension
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List 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
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Peter Dews University of Essex, UK.
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