Abstract
What is the nature of evil action? My thesis is that perpetrators and victims of evil inhabit an asymmetrical relation of power; the strength of the more powerful party lies in its ability to exploit the other’s fundamental vulnerability, and the weaker party is vulnerable precisely insofar as it is directly dependent on the more powerful party for the satisfaction of its fundamental needs. The fundamental vulnerabilities that are exploited correspond to features essential to our humanity (ontological), moral personhood (personal), and individuality (characteristic). These kinds of vulnerabilities are both constituted by and engender fundamental needs and give rise to direct dependencies on others to satisfy or to refrain from interfering with the satisfaction of fundamental needs. The unambiguous exploitation by the more powerful agent on whom the vulnerable directly depend is characteristic of evil action. Although I do not claim that the exploitation of ontological, personal, and characteristic vulnerabilities necessarily results in evil, it does typify it.
Literatur
Adorno, T., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., u. Sanford R. N. (1993), The Authoritarian Personality [1951], New York.Search in Google Scholar
Bagnoli, C. (2017), Vulnerability and the Incompleteness of Practical Reason, in: Straehle, C (Hg.), Vulnerability, Autonomy, and Applied Ethics, London, 13–32.Search in Google Scholar
Baker, L. R. (2015), Human Persons as Social Entities, in: Journal of Social Ontology 1.1, 77–87.10.1515/jso-2014-0037Search in Google Scholar
Barry, P. B. (2012), Evil and Moral Psychology, New York.10.4324/9780203075357Search in Google Scholar
Butler, J. (2004), Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence, London.Search in Google Scholar
Butler, J. (2009), Frames of War. When is Life Grievable?, London.Search in Google Scholar
Calder, T. (2013), Is Evil Just Very Wrong?, in: Philosophical Studies 163, 177–196.10.1007/s11098-011-9806-2Search in Google Scholar
Calder, T. (2015), Evil and its Opposite, in: Journal of Value Inquiry 49, 113–130.10.1007/s10790-014-9456-7Search in Google Scholar
Card, C. (2002), The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil, Oxford.10.1093/0195145089.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Christman, J. (2004), Relational Autonomy, Liberal Individualism, and the Social Constitution of Selves, in: Philosophical Studies 117, 143–164.10.1023/B:PHIL.0000014532.56866.5cSearch in Google Scholar
De Wijze, S. (2002), Defining evil: Insights from the problem of dirty hands, in: The Monist 85.2, 210–238.10.5840/monist200285212Search in Google Scholar
Dodds, S. (2014), Dependence, Care, and Vulnerability, in: Mackenzie et al. (2014), 181–203.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199316649.003.0008Search in Google Scholar
Fineman, M. A. (2008), The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition, in: Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 20.1, 1–23.10.4324/9780203848531-26Search in Google Scholar
Fineman, M. A. (2010), The Vulnerable Subject and the Responsive State, in: Emory Law Journal 60.2, 251–275.Search in Google Scholar
Formosa, P. (2008), A Conception of Evil, in: Journal of Value Inquiry 42, 217–239.10.1007/s10790-008-9118-8Search in Google Scholar
Formosa, P. (2014), The Role of Vulnerability in Kantian Ethics, in: Mackenzie et al. (2014), 88–109.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199316649.003.0004Search in Google Scholar
Frankfurt, H. (1998), The Importance of What We Care About, Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1991), The Social Self and the Partiality Debates, in: Card, C. (Hg.), Feminist Ethics, Lawrence, Kans., 161–179.Search in Google Scholar
Fulbrook, M. (2012), A Small Town Near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Garrard, E. (1998), The Nature of Evil, in: Philosophical Explorations 1, 43–60.10.1080/10001998018538689Search in Google Scholar
Garrard, E. (2002), Evil as an Explanatory Concept, in: The Monist 85.2, 320–336.10.5840/monist200285219Search in Google Scholar
Garrard, E., u. McNaughton, D. (2012), Speak No Evil?, in: Midwest Studies in10.1111/j.1475-4975.2012.00230.xSearch in Google Scholar
Philosophy 36, 1–17.10.1017/S003181910005779XSearch in Google Scholar
Gilson, E. C. (2014), The Ethics of Vulnerability: A Feminist Analysis of Social Life and Practice, London.Search in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Z. J. (2017a), Evil and a Worthwhile Life, in: ders. (Hg.), Reflections on Ethics and Responsibility: Essays in Honor of Peter A. French, Cham (Schweiz), 145–164.10.1007/978-3-319-50359-2_10Search in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Z. J. (2017b), Normative Judgments and the Narration of Evil, in: Brock, E., u. Honnacker, A. (Hg.), Das Böse erzählen, Berlin, 63–82.Search in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Z. J. (2018, i. E.), A Relational Approach to Moral Evil: Vulnerability and its Exploitation, in: Journal of Value Inquiry.10.1007/s10790-018-9637-xSearch in Google Scholar
Goodin, R. E. (1985), Protecting the Vulnerable: A Reanalysis of our Social Responsibilities, London.Search in Google Scholar
Goodin, R. E. (1987), Exploiting a Situation and Exploiting a Person, in: Reeve, A. (Hg.), Modern Theories of Exploitation, London, 166–200.Search in Google Scholar
Held, V. (1987), Non-contractual Society: A Feminist View, in: Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary 13, 111–137.10.1080/00455091.1987.10715932Search in Google Scholar
Kekes, J. (1990), Facing Evil, Princeton, N. J.10.1515/9780691217963Search in Google Scholar
Kekes, J. (2005), The Roots of Evil, Ithaca, N. Y.Search in Google Scholar
Landesman, P. (2002), A Woman’s Work, in: The New York Times Magazine, 15.9.2002, URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/magazine/a-woman-s-work.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print (25.4.2017).Search in Google Scholar
Lifton, R. J. (2000), The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, New York.Search in Google Scholar
MacKenzie, C., u. Stoljar, N. (2000), Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Mackenzie, C. (2014), The Importance of Relational Autonomy and Capabilities for an Ethics of Vulnerability, in: dies. et al. (2014), 33–59.Search in Google Scholar
Mackenzie, C., Rogers, W., u. Dodds, S. (Hg.) (2014), Vulnerability: New Essays in Ethics and Feminist Philosophy, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199316649.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. (1999), Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues, Chicago.Search in Google Scholar
McGinn, C. (1997), Ethics, Evil, and Fiction, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Miller, S. C. (2012), The Ethics of Need: Agency, Dignity, and Obligation, London.Search in Google Scholar
Morton, A. (2004), On Evil, London.10.4324/9780203704127Search in Google Scholar
Nedelsky, J. (1989), Reconceiving Autonomy: Sources, Thoughts and Possibilities, in: Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 1, 7–36.Search in Google Scholar
Neiman, S. (2002), Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Neiman, S. (2009), Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists, London.Search in Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (2006), Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership, Cambridge, Mass.10.2307/j.ctv1c7zftwSearch in Google Scholar
Oshana, M. (1998), Personal Autonomy and Society, in: Journal of Social Philosophy 29.1, 81–102.10.4324/9781315247076Search in Google Scholar
Oshana, M. (2006), Personal Autonomy in Society, New York.Search in Google Scholar
Perrett, R. (2002), Evil and Human Nature, in: The Monist 85.2, 304–319.10.5840/monist200285220Search in Google Scholar
Rachels, J. (2004), Drawing Lines, in: Sunstein, C. R., u. Nussbaum, M. (Hg.), Animal Rights, Oxford, 162–174Search in Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1971), A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, Mass.Search in Google Scholar
Raz, J. (1986), The Morality of Freedom, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Reader, S. (2007), Needs and Moral Necessity, London.10.4324/9780203940266Search in Google Scholar
Russell, L. (2007), Is Evil Action Qualitatively Distinct from Ordinary Wrongdoing?, in: Australasian Journal of Philosophy 85.4, 659–677.10.1080/00048400701728566Search in Google Scholar
Russell, L. (2012), Evil and Incomprehensibility, in: Midwest Studies in Philosophy 36, 62–73.10.1111/j.1475-4975.2012.00234.xSearch in Google Scholar
Russell, L. (2014), Evil: A Philosophical Investigation, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198712480.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Sample, R. J. (2003), Exploitation: What It Is and Why It’s Wrong, Lanham, Md.Search in Google Scholar
Sandel, M. J. (1984), The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self, in: Political Theory 12.1, 81–96.10.4135/9781446215272.n14Search in Google Scholar
Scheffler, S. (1997), Relationships and Responsibilities, in: Philosophy and Public Affairs 26, 189–209.10.1093/0199257671.003.0007Search in Google Scholar
Schildrick, M. (2002), Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self, London.Search in Google Scholar
Scully, J. L. (2014), Disability and Vulnerability: On Bodies, Dependence, and Power, in: Mackenzie et al. (2014), 204–221.Search in Google Scholar
Singer, M. (2004), The Concept of Evil, in: Philosophy 79.308, 185–214.10.1017/S0031819104000233Search in Google Scholar
Singer, P. (1972), Famine, Affluence, and Morality, in: Philosophy and Public Affairs 1.3, 229–243.Search in Google Scholar
Steiner, H. (2002), Calibrating Evil, in: The Monist 85.2, 183–193.10.5840/monist200285211Search in Google Scholar
Thomas, L. (1993), Vessels of Evil: American Slavery and the Holocaust, Philadelphia, Pa.Search in Google Scholar
Turner, B. S. (2006), Vulnerability and Human Rights, University Park, Pa.Search in Google Scholar
Vetlesen, A. J. (2005), Evil and Human Agency: Understanding Collective Evildoing, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511610776Search in Google Scholar
Wallace, R. J. (2012), Duties of Love, in: Aristotelian Society Supplementary 86.1, 175–198.10.1111/j.1467-8349.2012.00213.xSearch in Google Scholar
Waller, J. (2002), Becoming Evil, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Waller, J. (2014), The Ordinariness of Extraordinary Evil: the Making of Perpetrators of Genocide and Mass Killing, in: Jensen, O., u. Szejnmann, C. (Hg.), Ordinary People as Mass Murderers: Perpetrators in Comparative Perspectives, New York, 145–164.Search in Google Scholar
Walzer, M. (1995), The Communitarian Critique of Liberalism, in: Etzioni, A. (Hg.), New Communitarian Thinking: Persons, Virtues, Institutions, and Communities, London, 71–89.Search in Google Scholar
Wertheimer, A. (1996), Exploitation, Princeton, N. J.10.1515/9780691214511Search in Google Scholar
Whitbeck, C. (1983), A Different Reality: Feminist Ontology, in: Gould, C. (Hg.), Beyond Domination: New Perspectives on Women and Philosophy, Totowa, N. J., 64–88.Search in Google Scholar
Young, I. M. (1990), Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton, N. J.Search in Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. (2008), The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, New York.Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston