Suchergebnisse

The persistence of evil in modernity is discussed from the perspective of the ethics of technology & the position of Emmanuel Levinas on Jewish thought & tradition (Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism, 1990). Levinas critiques the reductive thought & impersonality of modern secular rationalism & easy objectification of the Other in the dualistic tradition of good/evil & self/other. He claims that this tradition made possible the Holocaust & the carryover of evil into postmodernity. Anti-Semites fighting the Jewish evil were sanctioned in their methods because they were fighting evil. This dualistic tradition of good & evil fosters an ethic of self-rejection of emotions & desires that spring from humankind's (evil) animal nature. This self-rejection was avoided by the projection of evil inclinations onto the Other. The dualistic ethical tradition needs to be rethought in order to move into a humanism concerned with issues of peace & social justice. M. Pflum