Memory as a Remedy for Evil

Memory as a Remedy for Evil PDF Author: Tzvetan Todorov
Publisher: Seagull Books Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 9781906497439
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
Can humanity be divided into good and evil? And if so, is it possible for the good to vanquish the evil, eradicating it from the face of the Earth by declaring war on evildoers and bringing them to justice? Can we overcome evil by the power of memory? In Memory as a Remedy for Evil, Tzvetan Todorov answers these questions in the negative, arguing that despite all our efforts to the contrary, we cannot be delivered from evil. In this work on evil, memory and justice, Todorov examines the uses of memory and the spate of memorial laws in France in order to show how memory has failed as a remedy against evil and how efforts to come to grips with past evil through trials and punitive justice have failed as well. Todorov locates the fatal flaw of all these approaches in our erroneous relationship with evil as alterity, the distinction that we draw between ourselves and others that allows us to imagine ourselves in the appealing role of hero and victim and confine others to the role of villain and criminal. Similarly, in his analysis of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Todorov argues in favor of restorative justice, which "seeks not to punish but to restore relations that should never have been interrupted" between former perpetrators and former victims. Memory as a Remedy for Evil is a powerful and timely work that asks that we recognize the good and evil within each of us--and reminds us that it is only by coming to terms with evil and trying to understand it that we can hope to tame it.

Memory as a Remedy for Evil

Memory as a Remedy for Evil PDF Author: Tzvetan Todorov
Publisher: Seagull Books Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 9781906497439
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Get Book Here

Book Description
Can humanity be divided into good and evil? And if so, is it possible for the good to vanquish the evil, eradicating it from the face of the Earth by declaring war on evildoers and bringing them to justice? Can we overcome evil by the power of memory? In Memory as a Remedy for Evil, Tzvetan Todorov answers these questions in the negative, arguing that despite all our efforts to the contrary, we cannot be delivered from evil. In this work on evil, memory and justice, Todorov examines the uses of memory and the spate of memorial laws in France in order to show how memory has failed as a remedy against evil and how efforts to come to grips with past evil through trials and punitive justice have failed as well. Todorov locates the fatal flaw of all these approaches in our erroneous relationship with evil as alterity, the distinction that we draw between ourselves and others that allows us to imagine ourselves in the appealing role of hero and victim and confine others to the role of villain and criminal. Similarly, in his analysis of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Todorov argues in favor of restorative justice, which "seeks not to punish but to restore relations that should never have been interrupted" between former perpetrators and former victims. Memory as a Remedy for Evil is a powerful and timely work that asks that we recognize the good and evil within each of us--and reminds us that it is only by coming to terms with evil and trying to understand it that we can hope to tame it.

Evil in Modern Thought

Evil in Modern Thought PDF Author: Susan Neiman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691168504
Category : Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
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.

Learning from the Germans

Learning from the Germans PDF Author: Susan Neiman
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374715521
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights–era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. Working from this unique perspective, she combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories. Through discussions with Germans, including Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who created the breakthrough Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibit, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, the East German dissident preacher, Neiman tells the story of the long and difficult path Germans faced in their effort to atone for the crimes of the Holocaust. In the United States, she interviews James Meredith about his battle for equality in Mississippi and Bryan Stevenson about his monument to the victims of lynching, as well as lesser-known social justice activists in the South, to provide a compelling picture of the work contemporary Americans are doing to confront our violent history. In clear and gripping prose, Neiman urges us to consider the nuanced forms that evil can assume, so that we can recognize and avoid them in the future.

Memory Lands

Memory Lands PDF Author: Christine M. DeLucia
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300231121
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
Noted historian Christine DeLucia offers a major reconsideration of the violent seventeenth-century conflict in northeastern America known as King Philip’s War, providing an alternative to Pilgrim-centric narratives that have conventionally dominated the histories of colonial New England. DeLucia grounds her study of one of the most devastating conflicts between Native Americans and European settlers in early America in five specific places that were directly affected by the crisis, spanning the Northeast as well as the Atlantic world. She examines the war’s effects on the everyday lives and collective mentalities of the region’s diverse Native and Euro-American communities over the course of several centuries, focusing on persistent struggles over land and water, sovereignty, resistance, cultural memory, and intercultural interactions. An enlightening work that draws from oral traditions, archival traces, material and visual culture, archaeology, literature, and environmental studies, this study reassesses the nature and enduring legacies of a watershed historical event.

An American Dictionary of the English Language

An American Dictionary of the English Language PDF Author: Webster
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1030

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Book Description


The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language

The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language PDF Author: John Ogilvie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description


The new encyclopædia; or, Universal dictionary ofarts and sciences

The new encyclopædia; or, Universal dictionary ofarts and sciences PDF Author: Encyclopaedia Perthensis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 762

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Book Description


Encyclopaedia Perthensis; Or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature, &c. Intended to Supersede the Use of Other Books of Reference

Encyclopaedia Perthensis; Or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature, &c. Intended to Supersede the Use of Other Books of Reference PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 768

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Book Description


The New Encyclopaedia, Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences ...

The New Encyclopaedia, Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences ... PDF Author: Alexander Aitchison
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 730

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Book Description


Media Technology and Cultures of Memory

Media Technology and Cultures of Memory PDF Author: Elwin Susan John
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000892034
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Media Technology and Cultures of Memory studies narrative memories in India through oral, chirographic and digital cultures. It examines oral cultures of memory culled from diverse geographical and cultural landscapes of India and throws light on multiple aspects of remembering and registering the varied cultural tapestry of the country. The book also explores themes such as oral culture and memory markers; memory and its paratextual services; embodied memory practices in the cultural traditions; between myths and monuments; literary and lived experiences; print culture and memory markers; marginalized memories in hagiographies; displaying memories online; childhood trauma, memory and flashbacks; and the politics of remembering and forgetting. Rich in case studies from across India, this interdisciplinary book is a must-read for scholars and researchers of cultural studies, sociology, political science, English literature, South Asian studies, social anthropology, social history, and post-colonial studies.