Minding evil : explorations of human iniquity / edited by Margaret Sonser Breen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Breen, Margaret Sönser.

Series:

At the interface/probing the boundaries ; 23.

At the interface/probing the boundaries ; 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Good and evil.

Ethics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Minding Evil: Explorations of Human Iniquity brings together fifteen essays, versions of which were presented at the Fifth International Conference on Evil and Wickedness, held in Prague in 2004. The volume examines evil and wickedness from a variety of disciplines, including criminology, cultural studies, gender studies, law, literature, peace studies, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. In so doing Minding Evil keeps in play the doubled meaning of its title: on the one hand, to tend to evil, that is, to oversee, cultivate, and deploy it; on the other hand, to be bothered by evil and so, in learning to identify or recognise it, to try to understand its workings and thus contain or control it and, perhaps, repair or undo it. While the essays taken together work to show the difficulty and at times the travesty of not being able to distinguish between the two meanings, it is this second meaning that remains key. What are the individual and collective responsibilities entailed in minding - being troubled by - evil? This is the central question of this volume.

Contents:

Preface

Part I: Groups, Activism, and the Tools of Ethnic Cleansing

Frank FAULKNER and Graeme R. GOLDSWORTHY: No Place Like Home: The Role of Landmines in Ethnic Cleansing in the Twentieth Century

Mark BURGESS, Neil FERGUSON, and Ian HOLLYWOOD: A Social Psychology of Defiance: From Discontent to Action

Haijing DAI: Dichotomous Thinking and Culture of Destruction: Revisiting Youth Activism in China during the May Fourth Period

Part II: Laws, Prisons, and Damaged People

Samuel H. PILLSBURY: Speaking the Language of Evil

Diana MEDLICOTT: The Unbearable Brutality of Being: Casual Cruelty in Prison and What This Tells Us About Who We Really Are

Wayne CRISTAUDO: Damage: A Logic of Evil

Part III: Evil and the Arts

Ted TURNAU: Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick: Reflections on the Necessary Evils of 24

Vera B. PROFIT: The Devil's Footprints: The Case of Dr. Emmenberger in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Der Verdacht

Elizabeth MCCARTHY: The Evil of Creation: The Destructive Aesthetic in the Figure of the Romantic Artist

Part IV: Evil, Despair, and Distorted Realities

Margaret SÖNSER BREEN: The Evils of [Same] Sex: The U.S. Gay Marriage Debate

Annette PANKRATZ: Inside Out and Outside In: Constructions of Evil in Contemporary British Drama

Karen D. HOFFMAN: Evil and Despairing Individuals: A Kierkegaardian Account

Part V: Individuals, Groups, and Evil Actions

Gideon CALDER: Relationality and Evil: Judging Bystanders

Stephen RILEY: Harm and Transgression in International Criminal Justice

William Andrew MYERS: Individual and Collective Responsibility for Wrongs of the Past

Notes on Contributors.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Versions of these essays "were presented at the Fifth International Conference on Evil and Wickedness, held in Prague in 2004"--Pref.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

94-012-0150-1

1-4237-8756-0

OCLC:

714567367

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789401201506 DOI