Midwest Studies In Philosophy: The Concept Of Evil

The Concept of Evil is dedicated to the analysis of the concept of evil. The term "evil" is used widely in ordinary language and yet philosophers have disagreed on what, if anything, distinguishes an evil act from a wrong act or an evil person from a bad one. Is "evil" a distinct and important moral category? Which agents and acts can and should be classified as "evil"? In which areas of practice does evil arise? These questions indicate three essential categories that belong to a thorough analysis of the concept of evil: meta-evil, the nature of evil, and applied evil. The articles presented in this volume provide insight into these categories.

Peter A. French is the Lincoln Chair in Ethics, Professor of Philosophy, and the Director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University. His Ph.D. is from the University of Miami and he did post-doctoral work at Oxford University. He was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) honorary degree from Gettysburg College in 2006. French is the author of twenty books including War and Moral Dissonance; The Virtues of Vengeance; Cowboy Metaphysics; Ethics and College Sports; Responsibility Matters; Corporate Ethics; and Collective and Corporate Responsibility. He has published dozens of articles in the philosophical and legal journals. Works by him have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, French, Serbian, and Spanish.

Howard K. Wettstein is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the City University of New York and a B.A. from Yeshiva College. He has authored three books, The Significance of Religious Experience, and Other Essays (forthcoming), The Magic Prism: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, and Has Semantics Rested on a Mistake? And Other Essays, and edited others including Themes from Kaplan (co-edited) and Diasporas and Exiles: Varieties of Jewish Identity. He is currently writing a new book on the philosophy of religion; his work in that area includes such topics as doctrine and the viability of philosophical theology; the Book of Job and the problem of evil; the Akedah (the Binding of Isaac); the character of religious experience and religious life; and the roles of awe, ritual, and intimacy. His has published articles on these topics and well as in the philosophy of language.

Zachary J. Goldberg is the Lincoln Fellow for Ethics Education and Director of Graduate Studies at the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Arizona State University, an M.A. in philosophy from Stony Brook University, and a B.A. (summa cum laude) in philosophy from Emory University. His research and teaching interests, broadly construed, are in metaethics, ethics, applied ethics, and political philosophy.