The New Statesmen has run an edited extract from Terry Eagleton’s new book, On Evil (Yale University Press, 2010). In the quotation below, Eagleton explores the epistemological work of the term “evil.”
It is also odd to assume that understanding is bound to lead to greater tolerance. In fact, the reverse is often true. The more we learn of the futile massacres of the First World War, for example, the less we feel they can be justified. Explanations may sharpen moral judgements as well as soften them. Besides, if evil really is beyond explanation—if it is an unfathomable mystery—how can we even know enough about it to condemn evildoers? The word “evil” is generally a way of bringing arguments to an end, like a fist in the solar plexus. Either human actions are explicable, in which case they cannot be evil; or they are evil, in which case there is nothing more to be said about them.
Read the rest of the extract here. More information on the book can be found at YUP’s website.
(H/T: Andrew Sullivan)