Ethics : an essay on the understanding of evil

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Ethics : an essay on the understanding of evil

Alain Badiou ; translated and introduced by Peter Hallward

(Radical thinkers)

Verso, 2012

Other Title

L'éthique : essai sur la conscience du mal

Available at  / 2 libraries

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Note

Originally published: 1993

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Ethical questions dominate current political and academic agendas. While government think-tanks ponder the dilemmas of bio-ethics, medical ethics and professional ethics, respect for human rights and reverence for the Other have become matters of broad consensus. Alain Badiou, one of the most powerful voices in contemporary French philosophy, explodes the facile assumptions behind this recent ethical turn. He shows how our prevailing ethical principles serve ultimately to reinforce an ideology of the status quo, and fail to provide a framework for an effective understanding of the concept of evil. In contrast, Badiou summons up an "ethic of truths" which is designed both to sustain and inspire a disciplined, subjective adherence to a militant cause (be it political or scientific, artistic or romantic), and to discern a finely demarcated zone of application for the concept of evil. He defends an effectively super-human integrity over the respect for merely human rights, asserts a partisan universality over the negotiation of merely particular interests, and appeals to an "immortal" value beyond the protection of mortal privileges.

by "Nielsen BookData"

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Details

  • NCID
    BD03312650
  • ISBN
    • 9781781680186
  • LCCN
    2012464293
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Original Language Code
    fre
  • Place of Publication
    London
  • Pages/Volumes
    lviii, 166 p.
  • Size
    20 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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