The Roots of Evil

John Kekes

Published by Cornell University Press 2015

The Roots of Evil

John Kekes

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801471315

Overview
Contents

About this book

Evil is the most serious of our moral problems.

Author / Editor information

John Kekes is the author of many books, most recently The Illusions of Egalitarianism and The Art of Life, both from Cornell.

Reviews

Lawrence Becker, author of A New Stoicism:

This is a wonderful book. The writing is beautifully clear, brisk, and memorable. The organization of the argument is excellent, and the surefootedness and balance throughout are admirable. John Kekes provides a thoroughly secular account of the nature and sources of evil as opposed to ordinary wrongs.

Harvey C. Mansfield, Professor of Government, Harvard University:

Evil is here defined as harm in excess and examined with the lucidity and clarity that distinguish John Kekes's books. His focus is on the thrill of evil, and his examples are stunning. This is a work of philosophy for every serious reader.

This is an interesting, systematic, nondogmatic, and informed attempt to make sense of evil on secular grounds.

The principal value of The Roots of Evil is that the author squarely faces the challenge of evil, a task of no small importance when Islamofascism and much else are testing the mettle of the West. While some obsess over the 'root causes' of the appalling things people do to one another, Kekes reminds us that evil actions find their origin in the individual. His book closes with some sensible if currently unfashionable recommendations for coping with evil: attending to its internal conditions by exposing people to the humanities and attending to its external conditions by a firm commitment to punishment. Indeed, the book contains much by way of sturdy good sense.

Since it reflects aspects of human nature—envy, ambition, the need for belonging—evil is a permanent threat. We can best combat it, John Kekes believes, by cultivating 'moral imagination.'... An education in the litearary and philosophical classics helps nourish the moral imagination.... There is much to admire in this lucid and morally serious book. Its concreteness sets it apart from the arid abstraction of many works of analytic philosophy. Its insistence on the existence of evil is refreshing in an age of academic relativism. Its modest conclusions are wise and generally right.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
1. Introduction: The Problem and the Approach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One. Forms of Evil
2. The Sleep of Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	10
3. Perilous Dreams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
4. A Fatal Fusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
5. The Revenge of Ruined Pride Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
6. Wickedness in High Places Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
7. Disenchantment with Ordinary Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
8. Taking Stock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Part Two. Explanations of Evil
9. External Explanations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
10. A Biological Explanation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
11. Internal Explanations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
12. The Mixed Explanation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
13. Responsibility Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
14. Toward Elementary Decency Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
15. Conclusion: What Is to Be Done? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 278
Keywords: Philosophy; History; Religious Studies

eBook

Published: April 15, 2015
ISBN: 9780801471315