The Idea of Evil

This timely book by philosopher Peter Dews explores the idea of evil one ofthe most problematic terms in the contemporary moral vocabulary. Despite thewidesprea... » 

This timely book by philosopher Peter Dews explores the idea of evil one ofthe most problematic terms in the contemporary moral vocabulary. Despite thewidespread abuse and political manipulation of the term Dews argues that wecannot do without it. Yet our intuitions about evil pull us in differentdirections. The centrality of the ideal of rational autonomy to our modernselfimage makes it hard for us to accommodate deeply rooted and obscurelydestructive motivations. Furthermore once having recognized the reality ofevil we may find ourselves succumbing to moral paralysis even despair. Dewsshows that these concerns are not marginal to the European philosophicaltradition. They have perturbed some of the greatest thinkers of the modern agefrom Kant and the German Idealists via Schopenhauer and Nietzsche to Levinasand Adorno. Written with lucidity and verve The Idea of Evil traces a struggleto translate religious insights into secular philosophical terms and toacknowledge the perverse impulse of human freedom without abandoning hope fora more just and compassionate world. «