New Demons : Rethinking Power and Evil Today

Simona Forti

ISBN 10: 0804786240 / ISBN 13: 9780804786249

Published by Stanford University Press Nov 2014, 2014

About this Item

Neuware - As long as we care about suffering in the world, says political philosopher Simona Forti, we are compelled to inquire into the question of evil. But is the concept of evil still useful in a postmodern landscape where absolute values have been leveled and relativized by a historicist perspective Given our current unwillingness to judge others, what signposts remain to guide our ethical behavior.

Seller Inventory # 9780804786249

Bibliographic Details

• Title: New Demons : Rethinking Power and Evil Today
• Publisher: Stanford University Press Nov 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804786240
• ISBN 13: 9780804786249
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 162H x 27D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 162 millimeters height by 27 millimeters depth
• Weight: 671 grams

About this title

Synopsis

As long as we care about suffering in the world, says political philosopher Simona Forti, we are compelled to inquire into the question of evil. But is the concept of evil still useful in a postmodern landscape where absolute values have been leveled and relativized by a historicist perspective? Given our current unwillingness to judge others, what signposts remain to guide our ethical behavior?

Surveying the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western philosophical debates on evil, Forti concludes that it is time to leave behind what she calls "the Dostoevsky paradigm": the dualistic vision of an omnipotent monster pitted against absolute, helpless victims. No longer capable of grasping the normalization of evil in today's world―whose structures of power have been transformed―this paradigm has exhausted its explanatory force.

In its place, Forti offers a different genealogy of the relationship between evil and power, one that finally calls into question power's recurrent link to transgression. At the center of contemporary evil she posits the passive attitude towards rule-following, the need for normalcy, and the desire for obedience nurtured by our contemporary mass democracies. In our times, she contends, evil must be explored in tandem with our stubborn desire to stay alive at all costs as much as with our deep need for recognition: the new modern absolutes. A courageous book, New Demons extends an original, inspiring call to ethical living in a biopolitical age.

About the Author

Simona Forti is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Piemonte Orientale in Italy.