Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness

Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness
Author: Andrea Veltman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2009-09-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0739136526

Until recently, philosophers have discussed evil primarily in theodicial contexts in pondering why a perfect God does not abolish evil. Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness: Essays in Honor of Claudia Card reflects a burgeoning interest among philosophers in a broader array of ethical and political questions concerning evils. Written in tribute to Claudia Card_whose distinguished academic career has culminated in the development of a new theory of evil_this collection of new essays explores the concept of evil, the multifaceted harms of brutal political violence, and the appropriateness of forgiveness as an ethical response to evils. Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness brings together an international cohort of distinguished philosophers who mediate with Card upon an array of twentieth-century atrocities and on the nature of evil actions, persons, and institutions. Contributors explore questions such as 'What distinguishes evil from lesser wrongdoing?' 'Is culpable wrongdoing a necessary component of evil?' 'How are we to understand atrocious political violence?' 'What are the best moral and political responses to atrocities?' 'Are there moral obligations to forgive contrite perpetrators of evils?' and 'Can anyone claim moral innocence amid a climate of evildoing?'

An Ethic for Enemies

An Ethic for Enemies
Author: Donald W. Shriver
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1995
Genre: Christianity and politics
ISBN: 0195119169

The author of this text examines how former enemies learn to live together in peaceful political association despite their suffering at each other's hands. He seeks to reclaim the concept of forgiveness from personal and religious realms and restate its significance in political life.

Political Evil

Political Evil
Author: Alan Wolfe
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307271854

A leading political scientist identifies "political evil" as wrongdoing perpetrated by individuals with specific political goals, cites specific examples throughout the world and explains that important changes can be initiated through adjustments in how political evil is treated.

Overcoming Evil

Overcoming Evil
Author: Ervin Staub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 597
Release: 2011
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0195382048

Overcoming Evil describes the origins of genocide, violent conflict and terrorism, principles and practices of prevention, and avenues to reconciliation. It considers societal conditions, culture and insitutions, and the psychology of individuals and groups. It aims to promote knowledge and "active bystandership" by leaders, the media and citizens. It uses both past cases such as the Holocaust, and contempoary ones such as Rwanda, the Congo, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and contemporary terrorism as examples.

Forgiveness and Revenge

Forgiveness and Revenge
Author: Trudy Govier
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2011-02-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1135199094

Forgiveness and Revenge is a powerful exploration of our attitudes to serious wrongdoings and a careful examination of the values that underlie our thinking about revenge and forgiveness. From adulterous spouses to terrorist factions, we are surrounded by wrongdoing, yet we rarely agree which response is appropriate. The problem of how to respond realistically and sensitively to the wrongs of the past remains a perplexing one. Trudy Govier clarifies our thinking on this subject by examining the moral and practical impact of revenge and forgiveness, both personal and political. Forgiveness and Revenge offers much-needed clarity and reason where emotions often prevail. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the ethics of attitudes to wrongdoing.

The Moral Psychology of Forgiveness

The Moral Psychology of Forgiveness
Author: Kathryn J. Norlock
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2017-05-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1786601397

The feeling that one can’t get over a moral wrong is challenging even in the best of circumstances. This volume considers challenges to forgiveness in the most difficult circumstances. It explores forgiveness in criminal justice contexts, under oppression, after genocide, when the victim is dead or when bystanders disagree, when many different negative reactions abound, and when anger and resentment seem preferable and important. The book gathers together a diverse assembly of authors with publication and expertise in forgiveness, while centering the work of new voices in the field and pursuing new lines of inquiry grounded in empirical literature. Some scholars consider how forgiveness influences and is influenced by our other mental states and emotions, while other authors explore the moral value of the emotions attendant upon forgiveness in particularly challenging contexts. Some authors critically assess and advance applications of the standard view of forgiveness predominant in Anglophone philosophy of forgiveness as the overcoming of resentment, while others offer rejections of basic aspects of the standard view, such as what sorts of feelings are compatible with forgiving. The book offers new directions for inquiry into forgiveness, and shows that the moral psychology of forgiveness continues to enjoy challenges to its theoretical structure and its practical possibilities.

The Atrocity Paradigm

The Atrocity Paradigm
Author: Claudia Card
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2002-09-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199881790

What distinguishes evils from ordinary wrongs? Is hatred a necessarily evil? Are some evils unforgivable? Are there evils we should tolerate? What can make evils hard to recognize? Are evils inevitable? How can we best respond to and live with evils? Claudia Card offers a secular theory of evil that responds to these questions and more. Evils, according to her theory, have two fundamental components. One component is reasonably foreseeable intolerable harm -- harm that makes a life indecent and impossible or that makes a death indecent. The other component is culpable wrongdoing. Atrocities, such as genocides, slavery, war rape, torture, and severe child abuse, are Cards paradigms because in them these key elements are writ large. Atrocities deserve more attention than secular philosophers have so far paid them. They are distinguished from ordinary wrongs not by the psychological states of evildoers but by the seriousness of the harm that is done. Evildoers need not be sadistic:they may simply be negligent or unscrupulous in pursuing their goals. Cards theory represents a compromise between classic utilitarian and stoic alternatives (including Kants theory of radical evil). Utilitarians tend to reduce evils to their harms; Stoics tend to reduce evils to the wickedness of perpetrators: Card accepts neither reduction. She also responds to Nietzsches challenges about the worth of the concept of evil, and she uses her theory to argue that evils are more important than merely unjust inequalities. She applies the theory in explorations of war rape and violence against intimates. She also takes up what Primo Levi called the gray zone, where victims become complicit in perpetrating on others evils that threaten to engulf themselves. While most past accounts of evil have focused on perpetrators, Card begins instead from the position of the victims, but then considers more generally how to respond to -- and live with -- evils, as victims, as perpetrators, and as those who have become both.

Irreparable Evil

Irreparable Evil
Author: David Scott
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2024-02-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231559690

What was distinctive about the evil of the transatlantic slave trade and New World slavery? In what ways can the present seek to rectify such historical wrongs, even while recognizing that they lie beyond repair? Irreparable Evil explores the legacy of slavery and its moral and political implications, offering a nuanced intervention into debates over reparations. David Scott reconsiders the story of New World slavery in a series of interconnected essays that focus on Jamaica and the Anglophone Caribbean. Slavery, he emphasizes, involved not only scarcely imaginable brutality on a mass scale but also the irreversible devastation of the ways of life and cultural worlds from which enslaved people were uprooted. Colonial extraction shaped modern capitalism; plantation slavery enriched colonial metropoles and simultaneously impoverished their peripheries. To account for this atrocity, Scott examines moral and reparatory modes of history and criticism, probing different conceptions of evil. He reflects on the paradoxes of seeking redress for the specific moral evil of slavery, criticizing the limitations of liberal rights-based arguments for reparations that pursue reconciliation with the past. Instead, this book argues, in making the urgent demand for reparations, we must acknowledge the fundamental irreparability of a wrong of such magnitude.

No Future Without Forgiveness

No Future Without Forgiveness
Author: Desmond Tutu
Publisher: Image
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009-02-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0307566285

The establishment of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a pioneering international event. Never had any country sought to move forward from despotism to democracy both by exposing the atrocities committed in the past and achieving reconciliation with its former oppressors. At the center of this unprecedented attempt at healing a nation has been Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom President Nelson Mandela named as Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. With the final report of the Commission just published, Archbishop Tutu offers his reflections on the profound wisdom he has gained by helping usher South Africa through this painful experience. In No Future Without Forgiveness, Tutu argues that true reconciliation cannot be achieved by denying the past. But nor is it easy to reconcile when a nation "looks the beast in the eye." Rather than repeat platitudes about forgiveness, he presents a bold spirituality that recognizes the horrors people can inflict upon one another, and yet retains a sense of idealism about reconciliation. With a clarity of pitch born out of decades of experience, Tutu shows readers how to move forward with honesty and compassion to build a newer and more humane world.