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    Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy: An Alternative History of Philosophy
    Unavailable
    Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy: An Alternative History of Philosophy
    Unavailable
    Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy: An Alternative History of Philosophy
    Ebook520 pages8 hours

    Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy: An Alternative History of Philosophy

    By Susan Neiman

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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 process, she rewrites the history of modern thought and points philosophy back to the questions that originally animated it.

    Whether expressed in theological or secular terms, evil poses a problem about the world's intelligibility. It confronts philosophy with fundamental questions: Can there be meaning in a world where innocents suffer? Can belief in divine power or human progress survive a cataloging of evil? Is evil profound or banal? Neiman argues that these questions impelled modern philosophy. Traditional philosophers from Leibniz to Hegel sought to defend the Creator of a world containing evil. Inevitably, their efforts--combined with those of more literary figures like Pope, Voltaire, and the Marquis de Sade--eroded belief in God's benevolence, power, and relevance, until Nietzsche claimed He had been murdered. They also yielded the distinction between natural and moral evil that we now take for granted. Neiman turns to consider philosophy's response to the Holocaust as a final moral evil, concluding that two basic stances run through modern thought. One, from Rousseau to Arendt, insists that morality demands we make evil intelligible. The other, from Voltaire to Adorno, insists that morality demands that we don't.

    Beautifully written and thoroughly engaging, this book tells the history of modern philosophy as an attempt to come to terms with evil. It reintroduces philosophy to anyone interested in questions of life and death, good and evil, suffering and sense.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateMar 1, 2004
    ISBN9781400825196
    Unavailable
    Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy: An Alternative History of Philosophy
    Author

    Susan Neiman

    Susan Neiman is the director of the Einstein Forum. Her previous books, which have been translated into many languages, include Why Grow Up?: Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age; Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists; Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy; The Unity of Reason; and Slow Fire: Jewish Notes from Berlin. She also writes cultural and political commentary for diverse media in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Neiman studied philosophy at Harvard and the Free University of Berlin, and was a professor of philosophy at Yale and Tel Aviv Universities. She is the mother of three grown children, and lives in Berlin.

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    Reviews for Evil in Modern Thought

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    • 2/5
      To judge the author by her work, Nieman seems well-read and well-studied. Too much seemed filtered through Kant. Generally a pretty big lean toward German philosophy, which isn’t bad in itself but it is supposed to be ‘modern thought’ --though the subtitle of the book is ‘an alternate history of philosophy’ so maybe that's how she considers it alternate... And really, no Spinoza? Seems disjointed, disorganized, from sometimes from section to section but especially from sentence to sentence, especially the first half of the book. Occasionally found myself reading and thinking ‘how does that sentence follow from the previous two?' And then a third that had me deciphering its relation to the last three. Or a controversial statement hanging with little (or not enough) relation to previous argument and no further explanation (“When white southern Americans lynched their black neighbors, there was still hope for the idea of civilization. When Germans deported their Jewish neighbors, there was not even that.”) Chapter 3 on Nietzsche and Freud begins with review of previous chapters evolving over 3 pages to how Nietzsche is hard to classify with historical designations, fine. Then page 206 heading ‘Eternal Choices: Nietzsche on Redemption’, begins with the question ‘would you live your life over if given the chance’ (as if Eternal Recurrence could be simplified thus?), and takes up with Oedipus at Colonus, then Liebnitz, and into Voltaire through page 207, then Hume and Kant through 208, Schopenhauer and Goethe 209-210, Voltaire and Rousseau 210-211, most of whom already had sections in chapters 1 and 2. When Nietzsche arrives 6 pages later it’s almost a surprise.Annoyingly, especially in the first two chapters, Nieman would wax philosophical on a point and then give a quote (usually more brief and consice than her exegesis) from the philosopher being considered as though the quote somehow validates her point, when really she was explaining the philosopher’s point in a preemptive way. She should instead make a statement, provide the quote, and then give her theory and explanation on how it fits her theme and proves her point. Nieman’s message is too tied up in her convoluted method. Pg 253 “Before trying to elucidate the claim that Auschwitz represents new forms of evil, it is important to mention two common ways of rejecting it.” Wouldn’t the normal method be to make the claim, elucidate it, mention objections, over come them? Had high expectations, so disappointed. Erudite and maybe, maybe ultimately worthwhile, but disorganized, scattered and frustrating. To say I disagree with some of her conclusions in the final chapter (yet another misinterpretation of eternal recurrence, and its application to Auschwitz; philosophical mechanisms and ramifications of Auschwitz, disengagement of evil and intention) would not ordinarily be to condemn the book, but again, the methodology and organization of ideas are so haphazard that annoyance with the author constantly got in the way of enjoying the book on almost any level. Guess a review would never be this long if I liked the book.
    • 5/5
      I'll start my review with a quote from Hannah Arendt, she was talking about a German soldier that gave his life to save the lives of Jews. "the lessons of such stories is simple and within eveybody's grasp. Policicall speaking, it is that under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not, just as the lessons of the countries in which the Final Solution was proposed it that 'it could happen' in most places but it did not happen everywhere. Humanly speaking, no more is required, and no more can reasonable be asked, for this planet to remain a place fit for human habitation." The writer, Ms. Neiman, wrote how philosophers from the earthquate of Lisbon to Auschwitz conformed the issue of evil and that is what is uplifting about this dark topic, they conformed the issue. Perhaps there is no clear understanding how evil happens or how to prevent it expect to believe or to have the hope that evil does not have to happen. I found this book to be very thoughful and left with a lot to think about but also hopeful.