Conceiving Evil: A Phenomenology of Perpetration - Couverture souple

Hamblet, Wendy C.

9781628940930: Conceiving Evil: A Phenomenology of Perpetration

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 162894093X ISBN 13 : 9781628940930

Editeur : Algora Publishing, 2014

Afficher les exemplaires de cette �dition ISBN

Pr�sentation de l'�diteur :

This book argues that the epistemological framework that permits us to see others as 'evil' also resituates our own moral compass and reframes our moral world such that we can justify performing violent deeds, which we would readily demonize in others, as the heroics of eradicating evil.

When conflict is understood positively as the confrontation of differences, an unavoidable and indeed desirable consequence of the rich tapestry of earthly life, then a discussion can open as to how to navigate the countless confrontations of difference in the most skillful way. Through this lens, violence comes into view as the least skillful means of responding to, and working with, difference, since violence tends to 'rebound' and leaves both victims and perpetrators worse off—shameful and vengeful.

Philosopher Wendy C. Hamblet argues that the radically polarized and oversimplified worldview that sorts the phenomena of the world into 'good guys' and 'evil others' is a framework as old as human community itself, and one that undermines people's own moral infrastructure, permitting them to take up the very acts that they would readily demonize as 'evil' in others. One's own violent responses to the human condition come to be reframed from unskillful and undesirable actions to valiant heroic reactions. In short, those who see 'evil' in others are far more likely to do 'evil,' resorting to the least skillful means for navigating difference—violence.

In theory, violence is demonized as 'evil' in popular and criminological discourse and calls forth 'rebounding' like responses in the form of acts of vengeance in individuals and punitive responses in state institutions. However, punishment is itself defined as an 'evil' inflicted by a legitimate authority upon a wrongdoer in compensation for a wrong done. This leads to the conundrum that the state, as much as the vigilante, must necessarily undermine its own legitimacy.

Biographie de l'auteur :

Wendy C. Hamblet is a Canadian philosopher, Professor at North Carolina A&T State University, Director of the International Center for Organizational Excellence, and Executive Director of the Concerned Philosophers for Peace. Dr. Hamblet’s research approaches conflict as the essence of the human condition and investigates the role of identity and difference in positioning people for (more or less) skilled responses to conflict situations. Her books include ‘Daemon in the Sanctuary — The Enigma of Homespace Violence’ (Algora 2013), ‘The Sacred Monstrous: A Reflection on Violence in Human Communities’ (2004); ‘Savage Constructions: The Myth of African Savagery’ (2008); ‘The Lesser Good: the Problem of Justice in Plato and Levinas’ (2008); and ‘Punishment and Shame: A Philosophical Study’ (2011). Hamblet serves as a consultant in the international community, developing Anti-Violence programs for schools, corrections reform strategies, and organizational ethics frameworks.

Les informations fournies dans la section � A propos du livre � peuvent faire r�f�rence � une autre �dition de ce titre.