La and Evil Philosophy, Politics, Psychoanalysis [Hardcover]

Law and Evilopens, expands and deepens our understanding of the phenomenon of evil by addressing the theoretical relationship between this phenomenon and law. Hannah Arendt said 'the problem of evil will be the fundamental question of post-war intellectual life in Europe'. This statement is, unfortunately, more than valid in the contemporary world: not only in the events of war, crimes against humanity, terror, repression, criminality, violence, torture, human trafficking, and so on; but also as evil is used rhetorically to condemn these acts, to categorise their perpetrators, and to justify forcible measures, both in international and domestic politics and law.

But what is evil? Evil as a concept is too often taken as something that is self-evident, something that is always already defined. Taking Kants concept of radical evil as a starting point, this volume counters such a tendency. Bringing together philosophical, political, and psychoanalytical perspectives, in analysing both the concept and the phenomenon of evil, the contributors to this volume offer a rich and thoroughgoing analysis of the multifaceted phenomenon of evil and its relationship to law.

Introduction  Part I: Freedom 1. Eden/Shangri-La, Angus McDonald  2. Tragedy and evil. From H?lderlin to Heidegger, Fran?oise Dastur  3. Interrupting evil and the evil of interruption- revisiting the question of freedom, Marcia S? Cavalcante Schuback  4. Wickedness inscribed in freedom  Jean-Luc Nancy on evil, Sami Santanen  5. Arche-Evil. Derridas Philosophy Explained through the Concept of Evil, Jari Kauppinen  Part II: Terror  6. Hell on earth. Hannah Arendt in the face of Hitler, Jacob Rogozinski  7. Total evil. The Law under totalitarianism,