The rational constitution of evil

reflections on Franz Baermann Steiner's critique of philosophy

Michael Mack

pp. 105-114

in: John K. Roth (ed), Genocide and human rights, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

Abstract

This chapter contributes to an analysis of philosophy's involvement in genocide by exploring the work of Franz Baermann Steiner (1909–52), a Prague poet and Oxford anthropologist whose critique of philosophy was developed against the background of the Holocaust. The epigraph from Imre Kertész's novel goes to the heart of Steiner's philosophical investigation of philosophy, which emphasizes that, far from being irrational, evil is impregnated by and with reason.

Cited authors

Kertész Imre