Jan. term courses can feel all too short, but we have covered a lot of ground over the last month.
For the last post, I'm simply going to put the two options for the final essay in the course out there. Respond and use the blog space as a testing ground for your ideas.
Or, feel free to comment on anything that occurs to you...especially questions we haven't addressed, or issues that have been left aside.
To recall the essay questions:
1. Identify a contemporary form of evil, and outline a constructive intellectual/philosophical response to it. How would you define your concept of evil, so as to include your example within it?
2. What exactly is the philosophical problem of evil facing us today? Or is there such a thing anymore? Should we perhaps jettison the concept “evil” in favor of some other terminology or form of explanation?
Thank you for having this 'testing site' available for us- and I think as soon as my arguments are a little more polished I'll be back with my ideas!
ReplyDeleteFor now I'll just say that the problem of evil in today’s modern concept is more complicated than it was when we were a more monotheistic nation. I say it is more complicated because we have to reconcile evil with many Gods, not just the Catholic or Judeo Christian one. Also our understanding of evil has transformed from a religious based context into a whole new animal away from theology all together. Maybe we need to stop using this term so lightly because its effects are blinding and absolute!
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ReplyDeleteI know that it may be a bit obscure but I would have really liked to address the idea/issue of evil in relation to suicide. Teen suicide is high and on the rise in America and it seems like we aren't fully confronting the epidemic. Suicide is hard phenomenon to swallow an I think it is one "evil" that we have the most trouble trying to understand and justify. During this month we have all been talking about how ending a life is one of, if not the highest evil. How can we apply the theodicies and theories we have learned in class to decide if a killing is evil if it is to one self. How can we explain the evil done to those surrounding someone who takes their life?
ReplyDeleteIn response to the question of suicide: I think that's really interesting as well. In my opinion it seems like more of an evil to those that have to cope with the after effects of someone else's suicide. When I think of suicide I think of the banality of evil because I view it as a very selfish, thoughtless act. But on the other hand that could just be because of the complications suicide introduces to the coping mechanisms. It's hard with a suicide situation to blame someone in specific. You can't totally blame the person who killed themselves because maybe they were mentally ill, had a chemical imbalance that didn't allow them to think correctly. You can't blame yourself if they didn't reach out before making the decision, in the same way this is potentially the reason you can't blame others.
ReplyDelete--I haven't totally worked out my idea for the final paper yet..
I've decided to focus on a contemporary evil for my paper, but I haven't decided which of the two: Kidnapping females to be sold in the sex trade or meth labs that double as living quarters for families. I suppose I would consider the meth labs to be the lesser evil? Both are intentional and dangerously so, but the kidnapping scenario suggests man as God more so. People taking total strangers' lives into their own hands by taking them against their will and drugging them to become prostitutes. From here the women are run down until they die or are killed. This situation also presents the banality of evil because a likely explanation to why people do such a thing is to get what they want: money. Are money and power the root of all evil? Fueling this sex trade of humans.
ReplyDeletethoughts??
Christina, I think money and/or power are roots of evil. But maybe you can look at it as people want money because it gives them power.
ReplyDeleteI think I want to write about abuse for my contemporary form of evil. We didn't get to discuss it much in class and for that, I want to try to relate it to what we've talked about. I personally think that the root of all evil is abuse. People can abuse their own power, other peoples trust, and other things and I want to focus on this idea while using sexual abuse as my example.
-Vanessa Norkus
I was thinking of doing my paper on hate crimes when it comes to racial discrimination OR gang affilation as far as the ruthless tasks these members have to engage in to be apart of the group as topics for a contemporary evil. I feel these are both rooted evil's and have been for quite some time. They are settling on destroying innocent vitims life's, which I feel is evil. They are both pretty similar but I wanted to know your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteChristina:
I feel that the sex trafficing of girls is a very good topic. It is practically happening all over the world and mostly in some places we call home, so I think this would be a really great topic to hear about as a contemporary evil.
Ok- so now I've decided to focus on the Catholic Priest Scandals that erupted during 2002 and 2003. I though choosing a modern evil surrounding children would push the limits of my understanding to the maximum. In my paper I'll focus on these incidences in light of my definition of evil and what some of the Philosophers we've covered argue we should do about such crimes. I'm going to use Arendt (no surprise there) Augustine, Kant, Bernstein and maybe a few more... definitely Dostoyevsky too. My paper will show the train of logic, strung together by a hybrid theodicy made up of bits and pieces of all these thinker’s ideals, used to analyze these incidences. I think I want my paper to conclude with the difficulty children add to a theodicy trying to reconcile evil with God (Dostoyevsky) and argue that in the face of such acts we must take a stance against it (evil as reprimand) and understand it so as to prevent it from happening again.
ReplyDeleteSteve I would see what comes up for you when you start typing. I am intrigued with the idea and would be very interested to see where you go with that concept. I think evil in ones self and around those who are left in the wake of suicide is a potent subject that would allow for very in depth analysis given the philosophers we've covered so far. Go for it!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to focus on the fact that I don't believe that people are predisposed to evil. I think that everyone has the capability to do good and evil. People don't choose to be good or choose to be evil. Merely there is a want inside someone, whether the want be power, forgiveness, love, ect, and the choices and actions they make to get that thing are deemed by others as "good" or "evil".
ReplyDeleteClaire, I really like your topic for the final paper. It is something to think about because I do agree with your arguement on people cannot predestined to be "evil" or even "good." I think through our life experiences socially and pschyologically impact our morale...
ReplyDeleteI think I've decided to write my paper on Augustine's idea how through evil good comes out of it. I plan to use many of the topics we have discuessed to support his arguement. I also decided to add in Voltaire's agrument against God to present another prespective on the concept of evil.
I want to somehow talk about how I believe man in general is the cause of all evil. It can be traced back through intimate evil, moral evil, radical evil and other types as well. Since we had to read Wiesel's novel "Night" I thought it would be a good idea to focus a lot on the moral evil portrayed in the story. Kant's explanation of radical evil is an interesting topic to understand in that we always put our needs first which can negatively affect other people. I understand my topic is a bit broad, but I strongly believe evil exists because of man and the actions men emulate. I will also provide philosophical standpoint from of the men we read in the beginning of the winter semester to drive my point home.
ReplyDelete-Ryan LoRusso
Christina-
ReplyDeleteThe meth labs that double as homes for families is a great example of the banality of evil in America (there are great videos on PBS frontline about this) but I think that you are going the wrong direction with the banality of evil on this topic-
The thing about heterosexual families and meth use is that they are hardly ever studied by ethnographers, while the gay male population of meth users (and I think that this has something to do with the fact that meth use is linked to the spread of HIV, and there is big $ in this type of research) is 95% of the studies that you are going to find is you look up this topic on ebscohost or jstor or some database. This is truly the banality of evil: these families are being ignored, they are out there in the boonies, in the hills, in the mountains, with NOTHING, no decent schools, no entertainment, and no reason to think that they are ever going to get out.
And society says "Look how horrible!" without realizing that society created these populations. (Lament and repriment, but in this case, the pity and the blame go to the victim). I'm not saying that they are totally off the hook, but when you step back and realize that these populations are socially sanctioned to get high on meth and rot, then the problem of the banality of evil becomes society's problem. This really is an "evil", especially with what happens to children in these situations. I think like over 50% of kids in child services in Oregon are the result of these situations.
There is a great article about social abandonment:
Biehl, J. (2001). Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment: Dead Language. Social Text 68, Vol. 19, No. 3 Fall 2001. Duke University Press
Anyway, you may not even choose this topic, but this is a different way of looking at social issues, which is especially important when you are talking about evil and where to "blame" or begin to analyze.
Nicole Luna
Claire and Thomas-
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your ideas on predestination and that no one is utterly predetermined to do evil. I am still moved by the way Augustine describes the 'two men reacting to a beautiful woman' scenario and how it directly points to life today. We see this case in our everyday life's, even more rampant in New York City. I am often disgusted by how men gawk and degrade women by their antagonizing remarks on the streets, and this is only a minor case. Evil is by cause and Augustine says it is by a deficient cause; one that is most oftenly us. I think this will be an interesting topic, one that I am debating myself.
-Kathleen Voss
I have chosen to do the modern issue of evil. The old issue was how can we have a god and suffer at the same time. I think Evil has become more of a religious notion. More spiritual, it has nothing concrete to go off of. I think now it is a matter of evil/religion vs science. I think replacing all evil with science and explanation gives people something concrete that they can understand and deal with. This is the issue I think I will be presenting in my paper.
ReplyDeleteI want to add that whatever anyone calls "evil," there is always a cause of it. Something happened to the evil doer, or they were in a situation that caused them to do something "evil." I also want to add that I think the word evil is thrown around nowadays like it is nothing. Things can be horrific, but they are not evil. To me, i think we can only really see evil, when it is Diabolical evil. If not, it is a horrible thing that happened and needs to be explained.
ReplyDeleteI decided to narrow in on serial killers, like I talked about in class today. I did not want it to be as broad as saying "man" is the root of all evil. I'm going to write about how serial killers tend to not show remorse, they do not feel bad about their actions. I like the idea of including diabolical evil in my essay because a lot of the times serial killers kill just for the sake of it, at times radical evil can be seen- in the sense that they put their needs before common law and they tend to break a lot of rules just for their own pleasure. I want to incorporate how serial killers relate to 3 main types of evil 1) moral 2) intimate and 3) radical/diabolical.
ReplyDelete-Ryan LoRusso
I found both the "Bastards of the Party" (the gangs movie) and the Malawi doc. "I Am Because We Are" on the internet in full and free.
ReplyDeleteI've watched both of them this evening and they are really great. Both are about an hour and a half and so if you ever get the time I highly recommend them.
"Bastards of the Party"-http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8238349959209990570#
"I Am Because We Are"-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KamKXZHXMUA
Claire-
ReplyDeleteI think your topic is great. It is really relevant to today's society. Also, thank you for posting the links to those movies. They were very interesting and insightful.
Gangs are such an interesting culture that I know relatively nothing about. It is just one topic that I wish we had more time to delve into in this class. I wish we could have gone further on so many issues and wish we could watched more documentaries liked the ones we viewed in class. The topic of evil is so complex and each issue has an insurmountable amount of questioning behind it. This is the first experience I have had with philosophy and I find it intriguing yet unsettling at the same time. Overall, this class was greatly enjoyed even with the heavy topic at hand!
ReplyDelete-Kathleen Voss
I am writing my paper about hate crimes, and how they are evil because they are othering people, as well as infringing on others rights. Thank you for the comments in class. I am going to focus a lot on why people commit these crimes, such as their need to get things under control, and because they are selfish. I'm going to include examples such as the Holocaust, the murder of Matthew Shepard, and the Genocide in Rwanda.
ReplyDeleteFor my paper I finally decided to close in on a issue that comes close to all New Yorkers. The homeless situation as an evil that we all comite everyday, with the simple fact of walking by, or ignoring. I am going to focus in on who there is really no support for someone in that situation, once a person gets that low, its extremely hard to get up, and with the little to no help furthers a lot homeless journeys even farther. I will touch on the moral issues not help them out creates, how the homeless situation has become institutionalized, i mean it is call a situation, as well as the banality of evil that we commite by simply walking on by.
ReplyDelete-Brendan Ryan
Yes, the "I am because we" are film really is a powerful movie. I was compelled to stick with the topic, even though I wanted to say that the word "evil" maybe shouldn't be used anymore. The HIV epidemic in Malawi, to me, is a tragic example of how some populations are allowed to live (people with $ in the developed world) and how other populations are allowed to die ( HIV+ people in the 3rd world).
ReplyDeleteDr.Herling- just as an idea, you may want to show exerts from this movie in a future "evil" class. I think that documentaries on events like Rwanda, the Holocaust, and school shootings were invaluable to the class, but the Malawi movie shoes another side of "evil": the evil of a disease, and what happens when we simply allow nature carry out a genocide.
-Nicole Luna
Nicole, thats an interesting concept. "allowing nature to carry out a genocide" It brings me back to natural evil and how there is not intent from nature to kill off humans. The fact that we allow nature to "commit a genocide" is the same, to me, as people allowing the people of Rwanda to kill each other.
ReplyDelete-Vanessa Norkus
I thoroughly enjoyed all the documentaries we watched but wish we would have had more time to see more. It is however, a January session so time is limited and I feel like Professor Herling caught the most important points. I would be very interested to see "Bastards of the Party" and "I am Because We Are" as well, but I do not feel what we viewed was invaluable. Thank you for opening my mind to the topic of evil!
ReplyDelete-Kathleen Voss
I really enjoyed our last class. I thought it was great to hear how everyone now perceives evil after this class. I also thought that the topics of modern evils were really interesting. I think the priest and little boys is a big modern evil that is very hard to argue it is not evil. I think teen suicide is also a very interesting topic. I think it was a great idea to present for the class because we got little tidbits of everyones paper which was a nice ending to the class.
ReplyDelete