Taking atrocities as paradigms of evil, this book develops the theory that evils (plural) are foreseeable, intolerable harms produced by culpable wrongdoing. It places this theory in relation to others put forward by historically influential philosophers (Jeremy Bentham, Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, the ancient Stoics), places the concept of evil in relation to other ethically important concepts (such as justice and equality), and considers case studies: rape in war, domestic violence, child abuse, and “gray zones” understood as certain predicaments of people who are at once victims and ... More

Taking atrocities as paradigms of evil, this book develops the theory that evils (plural) are foreseeable, intolerable harms produced by culpable wrongdoing. It places this theory in relation to others put forward by historically influential philosophers (Jeremy Bentham, Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, the ancient Stoics), places the concept of evil in relation to other ethically important concepts (such as justice and equality), and considers case studies: rape in war, domestic violence, child abuse, and “gray zones” understood as certain predicaments of people who are at once victims and perpetrators.