Book description
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
Peter Dews
is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex. He has published
widely on 19th and 20th century European thought, with a focus on German
Idealism, the Frankfurt School, and recent French philosophy. He is the
author of
Logics of Disintegration
(1987, reissued 2006), and
The Limits of Disenchantment
(1995). He has also edited and introduced two books on the work of
Jürgen Habermas: Autonomy and Solidarity: Interviews with Jürgen Habermas
(1986) and
Habermas: A Critical Reader
(Blackwell, 1999).
