Evil and Human Agency

Understanding Collective Evildoing

AvArne Johan Vetlesen

Häftad, Engelska, 2005

Del i serien Cambridge Cultural Social Studies

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Beskrivning

Evil is a poorly understood phenomenon. In this provocative 2005 book, Professor Vetlesen argues that to do evil is to intentionally inflict pain on another human being, against his or her will, and causing serious and foreseeable harm. Vetlesen investigates why and in what sort of circumstances such a desire arises, and how it is channeled, or exploited, into collective evildoing. He argues that such evildoing, pitting whole groups against each other, springs from a combination of character, situation, and social structure. By combining a philosophical approach inspired by Hannah Arendt, a psychological approach inspired by C. Fred Alford and a sociological approach inspired by Zygmunt Bauman, and bringing these to bear on the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, Vetlesen shows how closely perpetrators, victims, and bystanders interact, and how aspects of human agency are recognized, denied, and projected by different agents.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2005-12-01
Mått:152 x 229 x 19 mm
Vikt:480 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
Antal sidor:328
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9780521673570

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Mer om författaren

Arne Johan Vetlesen is Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Oslo, Norway. He is the author of over thirteen books including Perception, Empathy, and Judgement: An Inquiry into the Preconditions of Moral Performance (1994) and Closeness: An Ethics (with De Maleissye-Melun, 1997).

Recensioner i media

'This book is an excellent and brave contribution to a complex topic - balanced, well-argued, informative. I recommend it to all philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists who have research interests in understanding large-scale atrocities.' Claudia Card, Philosophy Review

Innehållsförteckning

1. The ordinariness of modern evildoers: a critique of Zygmunt Bauman's The Modernity and the Holocaust; 2. Hannah Arendt on conscience and the banality of evil; 3. The psycho-logic of wanting to hurt others; 4. The logic and practice of collective evil: ethnic cleansing in Bosnia; 5. Responses to collective evil; 6. A political postscript: globalization and the discontents of the self.