Evil in Modern Thought

Susan Neiman

Evil threatens human reason, for it challenges our hope that the world makes sense. It also 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 cataloguing of evil? Is evil profound or banal?

Examining our understanding of evil from the Inquisition to contemporary terrorism, Susan Neiman argues that two basic but contradictory 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.