What is Evil?

Catalog description

When we try to describe, understand, and respond to such atrocities as rapes, genocides, or serial killings, we often use the word evil. We will discuss the historicity of the concept of evil, its relativity, and the diversity of feelings that it inspires in us—such as fear, disgust, shame, contempt, hate, or compassion. We will also analyze the complexity of this concept, and its many symbolic representations. The seminar considers such questions as: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions to label an action or character as “evil”? What happens when we qualify something or someone as “evil”? What causes this moral judgment, and what effects may it have? We ground our investigation in the wider context of moral philosophy and ethics, introducing such topics as cultural relativism (“what’s right here is not necessarily right there”) and subjectivism (“what’s right for me is not necessarily right for you”). The goal is to better understand, and improve our thinking about, questions of right and wrong.