Evil in Modern Thought

出版者:Princeton University Press

作者:Susan Neiman

页数:376

出版时间:2004-03-01

价格:USD 24.95

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780691117928

具体描述

Evil threatens human reason, for it challenges our hope that the world makes sense. For eighteenth-century Europeans, the Lisbon earthquake was manifest evil. Today we view evil as a matter of human cruelty, and Auschwitz as its extreme incarnation. Examining our understanding of evil from the Inquisition to contemporary terrorism, Susan Neiman explores who we have become in the three centuries that separate us from the early Enlightenment. In the process, she rewrites the history of modern thought and points philosophy back to the questions that originally animated it. Whether expressed in theological or secular terms, evil poses a problem about the world's intelligibility. It confronts philosophy with fundamental questions: can there be meaning in a world where innocents suffer? Can belief in divine power or human progress survive a cataloging of evil? Is evil profound or banal? Neiman argues that these questions impelled modern philosophy. Traditional philosophers from Leibniz to Hegel sought to defend the Creator of a world containing evil. Inevitably, their efforts - combined with those of more literary figures like Pope, Voltaire, and the Marquis de Sade - eroded belief in God's benevolence, power, and relevance, until Nietzsche claimed He had been murdered. They also yielded the distinction between natural and moral evil that we now take for granted. Neiman turns to consider philosophy's response to the Holocaust as a final moral evil, concluding that two basic stances run through modern thought. One, from Rousseau to Arendt, insists that morality demands we make evil intelligible. The other, from Voltaire to Adorno, insists that morality demands that we don't. Beautifully written and thoroughly engaging, this book tells the history of modern philosophy as an attempt to come to terms with evil. It reintroduces philosophy to anyone interested in questions of life and death, good and evil, suffering and sense.

作者简介

We badly need alternative histories of philosophy. The story told (by me, among others) about philosophy from Descartes to Hegel being dominated by the problematic of epistemological skepticism cries out for supplementation, though not necessarily for replacement. Neiman sees the great figures of this period as worrying more about evil than about knowledge. Ever since Plato, she says, "the worry that fueled debates about the difference between appearance and reality was not the fear that the world might not turn out to be the way it seems to us—but rather the fear that it would."

That is a good example of Neiman's snazzy prose, which makes this book a pleasure to read, as well as an immensely welcome change from the sort of history of philosophy to which we Anglophones have grown accustomed. (The Germans, as she points out, are better at this sort of thing; compare Copleston to Blumenberg, for example.)

Neiman is very successful at reminding us that everybody down to Hegel took theodicy very seriously, but less so when she suggests that contemporary thinkers should still ponder the nature and cause of evil. Her claim that twentieth-century intellectuals were to Auschwitz as eighteenth-century intellectuals were to Lisbon works for some people, such as Adorno, but hardly for all. Lisbon impugned God, but Auschwitz only impugned Inevitable Progress, which not all that many people ever believed in anyway.

—Richard Rorty（理查·罗蒂）

用户评价

这本书真是让人耳目一新，作者的叙事功力简直是炉火纯青。从翻开第一页开始，我就被深深地吸引住了，仿佛被一股无形的力量拉进了那个错综复杂的世界。故事的开篇设计得极其巧妙，没有平铺直叙地介绍背景，而是直接将我们置于一个充满悬念的场景之中，让人迫不及待地想知道“接下来会发生什么？” 这种引人入胜的叙事节奏一直保持到了最后，每一次转折都出乎意料，却又在回想起来时觉得合乎情理。尤其是对人物心理的细腻刻画，简直是教科书级别的。作者仿佛能洞察到角色内心最深处的恐惧与挣扎，并将这些复杂的情感用精准而富有感染力的文字表达出来。读到某些关键情节时，我甚至能感受到自己心跳的加速，那种身临其境的体验，是我很久没有在阅读中体会到的了。这本书的魅力就在于它构建了一个既熟悉又疏离的世界观，让你在沉浸其中享受故事的同时，也能不断地进行反思。可以说，这是一次酣畅淋漓的精神冒险，强烈推荐给所有追求阅读深度和体验的读者。

这本书的语言风格是极其独特且富有韵律感的。它的句子结构多变，时而长句如潮水般涌来，层层递进，将复杂的思绪一气呵成地倾泻而出；时而又用短促、精炼的句子进行强有力的冲击，仿佛是命运的钟声敲响。这种节奏的掌控力，让阅读过程充满了音乐性。我注意到作者似乎非常钟爱使用一些不常见的词汇和比喻，这些修辞手法不仅没有增加阅读的负担，反而像宝石一样点缀在文本之中，每一次发现一个绝妙的比喻时，都会让我心头一喜。它不仅仅是在“讲述”一个故事，更像是在“演奏”一段关于人性的乐章。对于那些追求语言美感的读者来说，这本书绝对不容错过。它提供了一种超越情节本身的审美享受，让文字本身也成为了艺术品，值得反复咀嚼和欣赏。

读完后，我发现自己对书中某些角色的复杂情感纠葛久久不能忘怀。作者在描绘人物关系时，展现出了一种近乎残酷的精准度。那些表面上的和睦与暗流涌动的猜忌、那些看似无关紧要的眼神交汇中蕴含的巨大信息量，都处理得极其高明。书中几对核心人物之间的互动，充满了张力，如同两块磁铁在不断靠近又互相排斥，这种拉扯感贯穿始终，让人揪心。更妙的是，作者很少用大段的心理描写来解释人物的动机，而是通过他们做出的选择和对彼此的回应来侧面烘托，这种“留白”的艺术处理，极大地激发了读者的想象和参与感。我们不得不化身为侦探，去拼凑出人物内心深处的真实图景。这本书在情感层面上的细腻和深刻，成功地超越了一般的叙事层面，触及到了人际关系中那种永恒的、难以言说的悖论。

这本书给我带来的最大震撼，在于它对细节的极致把控和环境氛围的营造能力。作者笔下的场景，简直就像是被用最高清的镜头捕捉下来一般鲜活。无论是阴郁的城市角落，还是光线斑驳的古老图书馆，那些场景的描述都充满了独特的质感和气味。你几乎可以闻到空气中弥漫的书页尘埃味，听到远方传来的若有似无的低语。这种极具沉浸感的写作手法，极大地增强了故事的真实性，使得那些超现实的元素也显得不那么突兀。而角色的行动逻辑，也建立在这种精心构建的环境基础之上，他们的每一个决定，都像是环境压力下必然的产物，显得无比真实可信。对我来说，阅读这本书的过程，就像是进行了一次深入的感官探索。我几乎能感觉到皮肤上拂过的微风，以及内心深处升腾起的某种难以名状的寒意。这种全身心投入的阅读体验，实属难得。

坦白说，这本书的结构和主题的深度，远超出了我最初的预期。我原以为这会是一部比较轻松的读物，但很快发现自己陷入了一场关于存在本质的哲学迷宫。作者在探讨一系列宏大命题时，展现出了惊人的广博学识和严密的逻辑推演能力。更难得的是，他并没有让这些深奥的理论显得枯燥乏味，而是巧妙地将它们编织进了角色的命运和情节的推进之中。书中的对话往往一语双关，充满了张力，每一次的交锋都像是智慧的火花碰撞，让人不得不停下来细细品味。我尤其欣赏作者在处理道德模糊地带时的那种克制与坦诚，他没有简单地给出“好”与“坏”的标签，而是展示了人性光辉与阴影并存的复杂现实。阅读过程中，我常常需要合上书本，抬头望向窗外，让思绪在现实与书中构建的世界间徘徊、消化。这是一部需要被反复阅读和思考的作品，每一次重温，我确信都会有新的领悟浮现。

Between the adult who knows she won't find reason in the world, and the child who refuses to stop seeking it, lies the difference between resignation and humility.

Between the adult who knows she won't find reason in the world, and the child who refuses to stop seeking it, lies the difference between resignation and humility.

分析和文笔都堪称绝佳

Between the adult who knows she won't find reason in the world, and the child who refuses to stop seeking it, lies the difference between resignation and humility.

Between the adult who knows she won't find reason in the world, and the child who refuses to stop seeking it, lies the difference between resignation and humility.