The Shadow of Totalitarianism: Action, Judgment, and Evil in Politics (SUNY Intersections: Philosophy and Critical Theory)

Burdman, Javier

ISBN 10: 1438490003 / ISBN 13: 9781438490007

Published by State University of New York Press, 2023

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Shadow of Totalitarianism: Action, Judgment, and Evil in Politics (SUNY Intersections: Philosophy and Critical Theory)
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1438490003
• ISBN 13: 9781438490007
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Examines the relationship of evil, action, and judgment in the work of Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, and Jean-François Lyotard.

The Shadow of Totalitarianism develops a new way to think about the problem of evil in politics. Beginning with the commonplace idea that the rise of totalitarianism in the twentieth century marked the emergence of a new form of evil, Javier Burdman finds early seeds of thinking about this form in Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy. Far from being an isolated object of inquiry, evil, Burdman argues, has long shaped and been central to philosophical understandings of political action and judgment. Systematically analyzing the relationship between evil, action, and judgment in the work of Kant, Hannah Arendt, and Jean-François Lyotard, The Shadow of Totalitarianism aligns evil in politics with a desire for moral certainty, hence the emphasis on the need to accept and affirm uncertainty in current ethical theories. The careful philosophical analysis through which Burdman develops this inquiry contributes to a better understanding of some of the theoretical complexities involved in the problem of evil and provides conceptual tools with which to approach it.

About the Author

Javier Burdman is Research Fellow in the School for Interdisciplinary Social Studies at the National University of San Martin in Argentina.