The Nature of Evil

The Nature of Evil
Author: D. Koehn
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2005-02-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1403979375

When human beings do horrifying things, are they evil? By exploring such popular literature as The Talented Mr. Ripley , Dante's Inferno , The Turn of the Screw , and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Koehn illustrates that the roots of human violence are not true evil but a symptom of our failure to really know who we are. It is this lack of understanding of ourselves that can lead humans to perform horrifying deeds, rather than 'evil' itself. This is a deep look into human nature, its beauty and its failings. The Nature of Evil offers an insightful and engaging exploration at a time when we are all struggling to understand the roots of violence and suffering.

The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evil

The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evil
Author: Thomas Nys
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 840
Release: 2019-05-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317394402

Why ought we concern ourselves with understanding a concept of evil? It is an elusive and politically charged concept which critics argue has no explanatory power and is a relic of a superstitious and primitive religious past. Yet its widespread use persists today: we find it invoked by politicians, judges, journalists, and many others to express the view that certain actions, persons, institutions, or ideologies are not just morally problematic but require a special signifier to mark them out from the ordinary and commonplace. Therefore, the question of what a concept of evil could mean and how it fits into our moral vocabulary remains an important and pressing concern. The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evil provides an outstanding overview and exploration of these issues and more, bringing together an international team of scholars working on the concept of evil. Its 27 chapters cover the crucial discussions and arguments, both historical and contemporary, that are needed to properly understand the historical development and complexity of the concept of evil. The Handbook is divided into three parts: Historical explorations of evil Recent secular explorations of evil Evil and other issues. The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evil is essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of ethics and philosophy of psychology. It also provides important insights and background for anyone exploring the concept of evil in related subjects such as literature, politics, and religion.

The Problem of Evil

The Problem of Evil
Author: Michael L. Peterson
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 636
Release: 2016-11-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0268100357

Of all the issues in the philosophy of religion, the problem of reconciling belief in God with evil in the world arguably commands more attention than any other. For over two decades, Michael L. Peterson’s The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings has been the most widely recognized and used anthology on the subject. Peterson's expanded and updated second edition retains the key features of the original and presents the main positions and strategies in the latest philosophical literature on the subject. It will remain the most complete introduction to the subject as well as a resource for advanced study. Peterson organizes his selection of classical and contemporary sources into four parts: important statements addressing the problem of evil from great literature and classical philosophy; debates based on the logical, evidential, and existential versions of the problem; major attempts to square God's justice with the presence of evil, such as Augustinian, Irenaean, process, openness, and felix culpa theodicies; and debates on the problem of evil covering such concepts as a best possible world, natural evil and natural laws, gratuitous evil, the skeptical theist defense, and the bearing of biological evolution on the problem. The second edition includes classical excerpts from the book of Job, Voltaire, Dostoevsky, Augustine, Aquinas, Leibniz, and Hume, and twenty-five essays that have shaped the contemporary discussion, by J. L. Mackie, Alvin Plantinga, William Rowe, Marilyn Adams, John Hick, William Hasker, Paul Draper, Michael Bergmann, Eleonore Stump, Peter van Inwagen, and numerous others. Whether a professional philosopher, student, or interested layperson, the reader will be able to work through a number of issues related to how evil in the world affects belief in God.

The Meaning of Evil

The Meaning of Evil
Author: James Sias
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2016-09-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1137568224

In this book, James Sias investigates the psychologies of those who have acted in ways widely regarded as evil, and uses this psychological data as a basis for developing his own theory of evil. Sometimes, he claims, an action is so horrific and despicable that a term like “wrong” seems to fall short of capturing its moral status. Likewise, occasionally a person’s character is corrupt in such a way that ordinary trait terms like “selfish” or “insensitive,” or more general labels like “bad” or “immoral,” seem inadequate. In such cases, we often resort to calling the person or action “evil.” But what does this term mean? What is it that makes a person or action morally evil? Taking a cue from Hannah Arendt, Sias argues that this sort of evil is essentially a matter of regarding others as “morally superfluous.” In other words, evil is a matter of utter moral disregard. In the course of developing and defending this view, Sias also describes and critiques a number of prominent theories of evil proposed by philosophers in recent years.

Nature's Evil

Nature's Evil
Author: Alexander Etkind
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2021-08-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1509547606

This bold and wide-ranging book views the history of humankind through the prism of natural resources – how we acquire them, use them, value them, trade them, exploit them. History needs a cast of characters and in this story the leading actors are peat and hemp, grain and iron, fur and oil, each with its own tale to tell. The uneven spread of available resources was the prime mover for trade, which in turn led to the accumulation of wealth, the growth of inequality and the proliferation of evil. Different sorts of raw material have different political implications and give rise to different social institutions. When a country switches its reliance from one commodity to another, this often leads to wars and revolutions. But none of these crises go to waste – they all lead to dramatic changes in the relations between matter, labour and the state. Our world is the result of a fragile pact between people and nature. As we stand on the verge of climate catastrophe, nature has joined us in our struggle to distinguish between good and evil. And since we have failed to change the world, now is the moment to understand how it works.

God and Evil

God and Evil
Author: Chad Meister
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2012-11-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830866469

Leading thinkers in Christian philosophy and apologetics take on the problem of evil and suffering. Essays from Gregory Ganssle, Yena Lee, Bruce Little, Garry DeWeese, R. Douglas Geivett and others provide critical engagement with the New Atheists and offer grounds for renewed confidence in the God who is "acquainted with grief."

The Cambridge Companion to the Problem of Evil

The Cambridge Companion to the Problem of Evil
Author: Chad Meister
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2017-06-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107055385

This Companion offers a state-of-the-art contribution by providing critical analyses of and creative insights on the problem of evil.

The Positive Function of Evil

The Positive Function of Evil
Author: P. Tabensky
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2009-06-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 023024226X

This collection explores the controversial and perhaps even abject idea that evils, large and small, human and natural, may have a central positive function to play in our lives. For centuries a concern of religious thinkers from the Christian tradition, very little systematic work has been done to explore this idea from the secular point of view.

A Muslim Response to Evil

A Muslim Response to Evil
Author: Tubanur Yesilhark Ozkan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317187547

While Christian approaches to the problem of evil have been much discussed, the issue of theodicy in Islam is relatively neglected. A Muslim Response to Evil explores new insights and viewpoints and discusses possible solutions to theodicy and the problem of evil through the early philosophy and theology ofIslam as well as through a semantic analysis of evil (sharr) in the Qur’Ä n. Reflecting on Said Nursi’s magnum opus, the Risale-i Nur Collection (Epistles of Light), Tubanur Yesilhark Ozkan puts Nursi’s theodicy into discourse with so called ’secular’ theodicy or ’anthropodicy’, supported by scholars such as Newton, Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant. Her study offers a fascinating new perspective on the problem of evil for scholars of comparative religion, philosophy of religion, and Islamic thought.

The Problem of Evil

The Problem of Evil
Author: Marilyn McCord Adams
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1990
Genre: Good and evil
ISBN: 0198248660

This collection of important writings fills the need for an anthology that adequately represents recent work on the problem of evil. This is perhaps one of the most discussed topics in the philosophy of religion, and is of perennial interest to philosophers and theologians.