© Columbia University Press
Narrating Evil: A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment
May, 2007
Cloth, 244 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14030-0
$32.00
/ £22.00
"Narrating Evil is certain to make important contributions not only to the current literature on evil but also to the literature on reflective judgment, on Arendt, and on narrative, trauma, and collective memory." — Amy R. Allen, Dartmouth College
"One cannot imagine a more timely project. At a moment when it is perhaps clearer to us than ever before that torture, genocide, terrorism, and war are just not going to go away, it is of absolute urgency that moral and political theorists wrestle again with the whole question of political evil. With the Habermasian, Arendtian, and feminist intellectual resources at her disposal, María Pía Lara is excellently equipped to grapple with these gigantic issues." — Ronald Beiner, University of Toronto
"Using Kant, Arendt, and Habermas, María Pía Lara weaves an interesting and subtle account of how our ideas of evil are constructed through the stories we tell about evil acts. We should be attentive to the ways we narrate evil for it is here that we build strong defenses against gross moral trespass. This is a scholarly book with a passionate heart." — Simone Chambers , University of Toronto
"There is no single book that does what María Pía Lara does in her lively study of evil—integrating sophisticated theoretical analsysis with dramatic literary examples of evil. She shows how historical narratives and fictional stories further our reflective judgment and public discussion of evil. She weaves together philosophical, historical, and literary themes in an exciting manner. A fresh and thought-provoking contribution to the discussion of evil in our time." — Richard J. Bernstein, New School for Social Research