Away from religion, many social scientists have sought to demystify the concept claiming it is based on long discredited metaphysical or religious doctrines. They argue that the concept of evil is not needed at all as part of our moral vocabulary; in fact, it is dangerous, as it is cynically used by politicians and others to illegitimately exclude, demonise, and condemn their enemies. Those working in the natural sciences also reject the term as vague and unhelpful and therefore seek to substitute terms such as ‘empathy deficit’ for ‘evil’ to explain why some persons act in the terrible ways that they do. What is so interesting and enlightening about Sereny’s book is that she manages to reveal a considerable amount of the public and private parts of Stangl’s life and delves deeply into his thoughts, relationships, and motivations. He engaged in one of the worst genocides in history yet seemed to have good and ordinary relationships with friends and family that clearly mark him out as intelligent and capable of love, empathy and other characteristics which are commonplace. He did not, as one might expect from his actions, have obvious monstrous qualities. Nevertheless, he still willingly engaged in mass murder, torture, enslavement, ethnic cleansing, and more, while a Nazi Kommandant of a death camp. Dr. Julia Shaw takes a close in-depth look at evil in her new book. But this isn't the sort of book that most might expect. It isn't a bloody dissection of evil behavior in detail, or a discussion of pros and cons about punishment or treatment for those who commit serious acts of violence or crime. Dr. Shaw instead looks at the science behind human behavior. She points out in her introduction that her book is NOT about philosophy, morality, religious views or about punishment/consequences for aberrant behavior....it's about WHY human beings do the things they do, what in the makeup of human beings allows violent or evil choices, and what behaviors seem to be present in a person to make them capable of evil. Dr. Shaw breaks down the wide concept of "Evil'' into smaller pieces, using science to explain human behavior. This new edition includes the fiftieth-anniversary fully corrected text setting and, for the first time, an extensive new index.

Absolutely. But many of the evil acts that were performed relied on the Nazis recognising their victims’ capacity to feel human emotions, to feel shame or humiliation. That’s very different from thinking of someone as quite literally the equivalent of a rat. I think as well that a lot of the evil was rooted in seeing the Jews as moral agents—evil moral agents that deserved their fate—which again clashes with the idea that dehumanisation was at fault. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. A sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic. Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

When Terry is not "recreating" conversations between himself and police, himself and District Attorneys, or himself and other newspaper men, he is retyping prison letters from inside snitches. The most unsettling book I’ve ever read has to be The Room by Hubert Selby Jr. Spent most of the book wishing it’d be over soon. Apparently the author himself was unable to read the book for another 20 years after writing it!” EastOfMacondo And I'm not arguing against that: slavery used to be normalised in the West and is still practised here by the “greedy” and “selfish” in the shadows; but can't "greedy" and "selfish" still be evil? It was more challenging for me (in a very large section on sexuality) to think of pedophilia as a sexual orientation instead of an active choice, and Shaw urges us to see it as natural (and unharmful if not acted on) so that pedophiles can feel safe to open up about their urges and seek help. It’s a controversial book, of course, and very provocative. Arendt explains her famous idea of the banality of evil in relation to Eichmann and what he said at his trial. She suggests that the Nazis, like Eichmann, who were responsible for such evil acts were stupid, short-sighted and ordinary. They were clownish. Rather than reflecting malevolence, their actions were unthinking and routine. But she also makes claims about the complicity of Jews and others working with the Nazis, some of whom may have thought they were doing the best they could to rescue people, others who were acting out of self-interest and personal gain. She thought many more could have been saved if they hadn’t played along with the Nazis. And she also fumed against the hypocrisy of the Israelis, as with their outrage against the Nuremberg Laws, when their own laws didn’t recognise a marriage between a non-Jew and a Jew. No wonder her book provoked such a furious reaction.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute, about a spreading radioactive cloud, is the most disturbing thing I have ever read. It really unsettled me for a long time and even now I can’t properly think about it or look at the cover.” ID8664073 Manne’s proposal is that in cases of misogyny, it’s not that men don’t see women as people. It’s not that they lose control in some way. It’s rather that men are morally outraged. They expect things from women: they expect nurturance, they expect sex, they expect love, they expect care, and they get enraged when these expectations aren’t being met. So, for Manne, the husband who strangles his wife out of rage, it’s not that he doesn’t think of his wife as a person, it’s not that he’s lost control in some way; it’s rather that he is morally driven, he feels his wife has done something horribly wrong by not being a good wife and she deserves what’s coming to her. The late Iain Banks, pictured in 2013. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian The authors you suggested most often were John Fowles, Iain Banks and Stephen King This collection of essays offers historical accounts of evil from Plato to Camus along with the recent secular debates concerning evil acts and persons.

The best villains in literature

We arrive at the conclusion that murder is wrong, hurting animals is wrong, exterminating an entire group of people because you don’t like their religion is wrong, and so is sexually abusing children. I read my way through this tome about the nature of evil slowly and thoughtfully. I wanted to give my brain time to formulate its opinions on Dr. Shaw's theories. For me, the idea that any human being can be capable of evil in certain situations is chilling and disturbing. I'm not saying that it isn't true....I'm saying that it is a rough revelation. We all want to see ourselves as the "good'' separated from those we see as "evil'' -- murderers, rapists, criminals, pedophiles, etc. But are we really separate? Interesting theories. Very interesting facts and explanations. Definitely thought provoking, but also disturbing. I had a hard time getting through the entire book. Not because I didn't like it or believe it...but because there is a lot of hard truth and a lot to digest/think over. True crime books are not for the faint of heart. When reading about a fictional murder or murderer, you always have in your mind ‘this isn’t real’ and usually crime fiction ends when the murderer is caught. So not always with true crime. In most true crime books, you can find detailed descriptions of how people were murdered.

There were also a lot of contradicting arguments in the book. One that stood out to me was Shaw’s stance on porn – it’s not that bad and we should stop being so critical of the porn industry and those obsessed with it, and maybe we should allow porn to be used in health classes. But later in the book goes on to wag her finger at misogyny, chastising society for allowing ourselves to become over-saturated with images of women that promote an unhealthy idea of sex and women’s bodies, ultimately leading to demeaning women in society. The Rape of Nanjing by Iris Chang is still unfinished on my bookshelf. It is a well researched book that details the Japanese atrocities in Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese war but it is difficult to face the detailed descriptions of their inhumanity to fellow human beings and I had to put it aside. Maybe I will steel myself to finish it one day.” lwb48_zh This book is good fun, but it's not the solid source I hoped. I agree with all of Shaw's conclusions (see below), but the arguments here aren't very strong and I have issues with that. I felt the logic wasn't always carefully worked out or worded well. And I was really bothered by her writing, occasionally, " But is it evil? I think not." That's a terrible tie-in to the book's overall theme.Do you see this inability to let people get close as a common human trait? For example, I think there are similar types of characters in your book, Union Atlantic, with the 21st-century hard-nosed power-hungry New Yorkers. This is an extraordinary book that defies classification. He doesn’t have a single pitch or argument to make, but it is a beautiful exploration of evil, not just of what motivates the perpetrators, but also about how we see the perpetrators. As the Clone Wars rage, victory or defeat lies in the hands of elite squads that take on the toughest assignments in the galaxy–stone-cold soldiers who go where no one else would, to do what no one else could. . . .

There’s a passive defence for everything from pedophiles and bestiality to the idea that words like “murderer” and “rapist” are hypocritical and heinous definitions we as a species label people unfairly with when really we’ve all made mistakes as humans.Baumeister is an experimental psychologist. He takes evil to be intentionally harming another person who is undeserving of such treatment. His focus is on how the perpetrators of evil experience what they do, their perceptions of it. He argues that people who commit evil generally don’t see what they do as evil, but rather as some sort of justified response to a difficult situation. Vera’s novel draws on and strikingly articulates the well-documented effects of those who suffered from and survived the worst kinds of evil actions. We know that the victims of genocide, torture, and rape, never fully recover. We also know that evil leaves a residue of moral pollution for the perpetrator and deep shame for the victim, which is never washed away. Our horror and visceral disgust in the face of evil actions and persons is a testimony to this. Vera’s novel is a masterpiece at expressing this facet of the concept. Honourable Mentions This is to some extent a pessimistic conclusion. There are people who write as if all we need to do is recognise the human qualities in each other and violence and cruelty will magically come to an end and we’ll all live happily ever after. I wish this were true but I don’t think it is. After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Evil: The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side hits on some rough subjects -- sadism, murder, deviance, group violence, terrorism, effects of technology/the internet and others.