Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy

by Susan Neiman

Book Overview

Evil threatens human reason, for it challenges our hope that the world makes sense. For eighteenth-century Europeans, the Lisbon earthquake was manifest evil. Today we view evil as a matter of human cruelty, and Auschwitz as its extreme incarnation. Examining our understanding of evil from the Inquisition to contemporary terrorism, Susan Neiman explores who we have become in the three centuries that separate us from the early Enlightenment. In the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691117926
• ISBN13: 9780691117928
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Who'd a thunk it...an actual philosophy book

This is a very good book. It actually is a philosophy book in that it makes one think about the fundamental: Is there a purpose? It does this by describing how philosophers over the last 300 years have defined and explained suffering and evil. I had not read many of the authors but Neiman is able to frame up their thoughts in the text without too much trouble. I made a couple of sidetrips to the dictionary and some other reference sources but not many. For the authors I had read, I found her observations new and interesting. Some key themes that bounced around are: -Is there an inherent conflict between the idea of an omnipotent God and a benevolent God? -Is a moral choice truly moral if the person knows that there is a specific reward or punishment tied to it? So, is the only universe where free will can truly be free one where nothing can be proved? -How much of our moral views might really be more related to psychology? -What is the role of intention in evil? Natural disaters were considered an evil at one time but were defined away. Is being a bureaucrat within a structure that causes suffering intentional evil or not? What I feel is missing from the book is a treatment of how non-western religions and philosophies have dealt with the problem. Including a Buddhist perspective would have been a good addition. However, because Neiman framed her discussion up the way she did, it's not failure, it's just a choice. Maybe she will deal with it elsewhere. This book has rekindled my own dormant interest in philosophy and I now have a short list of the other books I want to read as follow-ups.

Is Evil A Dead Issue?

The concept of evil has occupied a significant place in philosophy throughout the history of man's thinking. Dr. Neiman has written a very interesting book that explores the problem of evil as considered from early modern thinking to the present. The question is, of course, how do you reconcile an omnipotent, benevolent Deity with the existence of evil. She starts the discussion with Leibnitz who felt that God considered all possible worlds, and decided that the one we have is the best one possible. Evil was divided into two types: natural evil that encompassed the cruelties of nature (floods, earthquakes, droughts, etc.) and moral evil i.e. those acts that we humans are responsible for. Pierre Bayle and Voltaire eagerly tore this idea to shreds. Rousseau came along and said that man, and not God was responsible for all evil, as man had become corrupted through the progress of civilization. Neiman goes on to discuss the thoughts of Hume, Schopenhauer, Kant, Nietzsche, Feud, and even the Marquis de Sade. Then she delves into the topic of the Holocaust, and September 11. Of particular interest here is the thoughts of Hannah Arendt on the Holocaust, and her reflections during the war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann. Arendt feels that the vast majority of those involved in the Holocaust, Eichmann included, had no malicious intent in what they did. They merely performed assigned tasks, and did not really have the evil impulses that might be found in one of de Sade's novels. Evil truly had become banal, a merely boring activity of a bureaucracy. September 11th did provide evidence of evil intent, however. Those involved were determined to destroy innocent human lives.At this point one has to wonder whether Evil as a philosophical issue has become obsolete. Arendt's reaction to evil (and Freud's too) pointed out psychological issues, and my feeling is that our study of the topic should move on to the examination of the individual and social psychology, and the cultural factors that examine our species' seeming propensity to engage in acts of "moral" evil. Author Neiman also asks the question of whether Philosophy can go any further with this topic.One outstanding book that covers this topic is "Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century" by Jonathan Glover. He explores how humans become desensitized to evil; how we are able to dispassionately "kill from a distance." A government can decided to drop bombs on people; missiles are fired that do the task. Yet no one involved actually is engaged in any close up killing of another human. Other books to consider are "Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty" by Roy Baumeister; "The Roots of Evil", by Ervin Straub; "Why They Kill", by Richard Rhodes; and "Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People", by John Conroy. These books all explore the psychology of evil behavior. A final comment. This book can be read and enjoyed by that ubiquitous "educated layman", but an interest in the topic of western philosophy would

A Grand Tour of the Thought about Evil

This book offers an extraordinary odyssey for the mind: Neiman gives us a grand tour of western philosophy, from the book of Job to Hannah Arendt, from Albert Camus via Rousseau and Sade, but does not explore these authors with the standard queries of philosophy (epistemology or metaphysics). Neiman examines how these various authors have raised what are perhaps the most burning questions of our times: Why do we suffer? What is evil?This is an exhilarating book which philosophers and non-philosophers alike can only enjoy.

If this is the future of philosophy--

BRING IT ON!!I found this book so cogent and lucid that I couldn't put it down. And look forward to a second read. It isn't philosophy lite, but it can't be, given the subject. For a seriousreader both the style and the substance is a feast for the mind and spirit. Evil in Modern Thought manages to convey the rich complexity of modern philosophy and the childlike wonder that is it's cornerstone.

brilliant evil

This is the kind of book you want to buy for all your friends so you can argue about it. It's the kind of book you want to get an extra copy of so your spouse can read it at the same time and you can talk your way through it. It's the kind of book that will be a required text of most philosophy 101 classes in ten years' time, and the one text you reread ten years after graduating. It is witty without being glib, accessible without being remotely condescending. It's both brilliant and brave because it dares to remind us why anyone was interested in philosophy in the first place and why we need it.