The Least of All Possible Evils

The Least of All Possible Evils
Author: Eyal Weizman
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2012-06-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1844676471

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Groundbreaking exploration of the philosophy underpinning Western humanitarian intervention The principle of the “lesser evil”—the acceptability of pursuing one exceptional course of action in order to prevent a greater injustice—has long been a cornerstone of Western ethical philosophy. From its roots in classical ethics and Christian theology, to Hannah Arendt’s exploration of the work of the Jewish Councils during the Nazi regime, Weizman explores its development in three key transformations of the problem: the defining intervention of Médecins Sans Frontières in mid-1980s Ethiopia; the separation wall in Israel-Palestine; and international and human rights law in Bosnia, Gaza and Iraq. Drawing on a wealth of new research, Weizman charts the latest manifestation of this age-old idea. In doing so he shows how military and political intervention acquired a new “humanitarian” acceptability and legality in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

The Least of All Possible Evils

The Least of All Possible Evils
Author: Eyal Weizman
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-10-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 178663273X

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Groundbreaking exploration of the philosophy underpinning Western humanitarian intervention The notion of a humanitarian “lesser evil” has become instrumental in justifying the West’s military adventures. It informs obscene calculations determining how much collateral damage is permissible in conflict. It determines the minimum requirements of survival imposed upon an occupied territory. As Eyal Weizman shows in this brilliant exploration of forensic architecture, this can be seen in particular in the regime imposed upon Gaza by the state of Israel. Examining the damage following the 2010 bombardment, he pieces together the systematic process of destruction, revealing the political atrocity within the debris. The way he gathers together the evidence forces us to rethink our understanding of justice and human rights in the modern world.

Investigative Aesthetics

Investigative Aesthetics
Author: Matthew Fuller
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1788739108

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Today, artists are engaged in investigation. They probe corruption, state violence, environmental destruction and repressive technologies. At the same time, fields not usually associated with aesthetics make powerful use of it. Journalists and legal professionals pore over open source videos and satellite imagery to undertake visual investigations. This combination of diverse fields is what the authors call "investigative aesthetics": mobilising sensibilities often associated with art, architecture and other such practices to find new ways of speaking truth to power. This book draws on theories of knowledge, ecology and technology, evaluates the methods of citizen counter-forensics, micro-history and art, and examines radical practices such as those of Wikileaks, Bellingcat, and Forensic Architecture. Investigative Aesthetics takes place in the studio and the laboratory, the courtroom and the gallery, online and in the streets, as it strives towards the construction of a new 'common sensing'. The book is an inspiring introduction to a new field that brings together investigation and aesthetics to change how we understand and confront power today. To Nour Abuzaid for your brilliance, perseverance, and unshaken belief in the liberation of Palestine.

Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God

Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God
Author: Marilyn McCord Adams
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2018-09-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1501735926

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When confronted by horrendous evil, even the most pious believer may question not only life's worth but also God's power and goodness. A distinguished philosopher and a practicing minister, Marilyn McCord Adams has written a highly original work on a fundamental dilemma of Christian thought—how to reconcile faith in God with the evils that afflict human beings. Adams argues that much of the discussion in analytic philosophy of religion over the last forty years has offered too narrow an understanding of the problem. The ground rules accepted for the discussion have usually led philosophers to avert their gaze from the worst—horrendous—evils and their devastating impact on human lives. They have agreed to debate the issue on the basis of religion-neutral values, and have focused on morals, an approach that—Adams claims—is inadequate for formulating and solving the problem of horrendous evils. She emphasizes instead the fruitfulness of other evaluative categories such as purity and defilement, honor and shame, and aesthetics. If redirected, philosophical reflection on evil can, Adams's book demonstrates, provide a valuable approach not only to theories of God and evil but also to pastoral care.

Hollow Land

Hollow Land
Author: Eyal Weizman
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2024-10-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1804297100

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Hollow Land is a groundbreaking exploration of the political space created by Israel’s colonial occupation. In this journey from the deep subterranean spaces of the West Bank and Gaza to their militarized airspace, Eyal Weizman unravels Israel’s mechanisms of control and its transformation of the Occupied Territories into a theoretically constructed artifice, in which all natural and built features function as the weapons and ammunition with which the conflict is waged. Weizman traces the development of these ideas, from the influence of archaeology on urban planning, Ariel Sharon’s reconceptualization of military defense during the 1973 war, through the planning and architecture of the settlements, to contemporary Israeli discourse and practice of urban warfare and airborne targeted assassinations. In exploring Israel’s methods to transform the landscape and the built environment themselves into tools of domination and control, Hollow Land lays bare the political system at the heart of this complex and terrifying project of late-modern colonial occupation.

Forensic Architecture

Forensic Architecture
Author: Eyal Weizman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2017-05-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1935408178

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In recent years, a little-known research group named Forensic Architecture began using novel research methods to undertake a series of investigations into human rights abuses. Today, the group provides crucial evidence for international courts and works with a wide range of activist groups, NGOs, Amnesty International, and the UN. Beyond shedding new light on human rights violations and state crimes across the globe, Forensic Architecture has also created a new form of investigative practice that bears its name. The group uses architecture as an optical device to investigate armed conflicts and environmental destruction, as well as to cross-reference a variety of evidence sources, such as new media, remote sensing, material analysis, witness testimony, and crowd-sourcing. In Forensic Architecture, Eyal Weizman, the group’s founder, provides, for the first time, an in-depth introduction to the history, practice, assumptions, potentials, and double binds of this practice. The book includes an extensive array of images, maps, and detailed documentation that records the intricate work the group has performed. Included in this volume are case studies that traverse multiple scales and durations, ranging from the analysis of the shrapnel fragments in a room struck by drones in Pakistan, the reconstruction of a contested shooting in the West Bank, the architectural recreation of a secret Syrian detention center from the memory of its survivors, a blow-by-blow account of a day-long battle in Gaza, and an investigation of environmental violence and climate change in the Guatemalan highlands and elsewhere. Weizman’s Forensic Architecture, stunning and shocking in its critical narrative, powerful images, and daring investigations, presents a new form of public truth, technologically, architecturally, and aesthetically produced. Their practice calls for a transformative politics in which architecture as a field of knowledge and a mode of interpretation exposes and confronts ever-new forms of state violence and secrecy.

Lesser Evils

Lesser Evils
Author: Joe Flanagan
Publisher: Europa Editions UK
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2016-03-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787700437

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The mystifying murder of a child brings us into a dark world of intrigue When returning WWII veteran Bill Warren becomes the replacement police chief of a quiet Cape Cod town, his duties seem simple: days spent breaking up petty rackets and domestic disturbances and nights spent caring for his disabled son. But these commitments can't shut out the echoes of the life he might have led. Then a child goes missing and Warren begins an investigation more frightening than any he could have imagined. As the case grows increasingly mystifying and attracts statewide attention, the press converges on the placid Cape. Desperate to get answers before another child dies, Warren will have to confront a criminal conspiracy, a secretive pharmaceutical firm, and an odd local clergyman who may be either a miracle worker or a madman. The America that Warren left is not the one he has returned to. As the investigation expands into the squalid corners of a world where the police may be as culpable as the men they hunt, Warren is confronted by his own past and the threat it poses to his future. A thrilling debut in the finest noir tradition, a painterly evocation of a seminal time and place, Lesser Evils is a vivid portrait of a father trying to remain honorable in a changing world. The novel will keep you riveted until its startling and unexpected denouement.

The Lesser Evil

The Lesser Evil
Author: Michael Ignatieff
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2005-09-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0691123934

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Must we fight terrorism with terror, match assassination with assassination, and torture with torture? Must we sacrifice civil liberty to protect public safety? In the age of terrorism, the temptations of ruthlessness can be overwhelming. But we are pulled in the other direction too by the anxiety that a violent response to violence makes us morally indistinguishable from our enemies. There is perhaps no greater political challenge today than trying to win the war against terror without losing our democratic souls. Michael Ignatieff confronts this challenge head-on, with the combination of hard-headed idealism, historical sensitivity, and political judgment that has made him one of the most influential voices in international affairs today. Ignatieff argues that we must not shrink from the use of violence--that far from undermining liberal democracy, force can be necessary for its survival. But its use must be measured, not a program of torture and revenge. And we must not fool ourselves that whatever we do in the name of freedom and democracy is good. We may need to kill to fight the greater evil of terrorism, but we must never pretend that doing so is anything better than a lesser evil. In making this case, Ignatieff traces the modern history of terrorism and counter-terrorism, from the nihilists of Czarist Russia and the militias of Weimar Germany to the IRA and the unprecedented menace of Al Qaeda, with its suicidal agents bent on mass destruction. He shows how the most potent response to terror has been force, decisive and direct, but--just as important--restrained. The public scrutiny and political ethics that motivate restraint also give democracy its strongest weapon: the moral power to endure when the furies of vengeance and hatred are spent. The book is based on the Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 2003.

Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness

Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness
Author: Andrea Veltman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2009-09-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0739136526

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Until recently, philosophers have discussed evil primarily in theodicial contexts in pondering why a perfect God does not abolish evil. Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness: Essays in Honor of Claudia Card reflects a burgeoning interest among philosophers in a broader array of ethical and political questions concerning evils. Written in tribute to Claudia Card_whose distinguished academic career has culminated in the development of a new theory of evil_this collection of new essays explores the concept of evil, the multifaceted harms of brutal political violence, and the appropriateness of forgiveness as an ethical response to evils. Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness brings together an international cohort of distinguished philosophers who mediate with Card upon an array of twentieth-century atrocities and on the nature of evil actions, persons, and institutions. Contributors explore questions such as 'What distinguishes evil from lesser wrongdoing?' 'Is culpable wrongdoing a necessary component of evil?' 'How are we to understand atrocious political violence?' 'What are the best moral and political responses to atrocities?' 'Are there moral obligations to forgive contrite perpetrators of evils?' and 'Can anyone claim moral innocence amid a climate of evildoing?'

Evil Men

Evil Men
Author: James Dawes
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2013-05-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674073991

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Presented with accounts of genocide and torture, we ask how people could bring themselves to commit such horrendous acts. A searching meditation on our all-too-human capacity for inhumanity, Evil Men confronts atrocity head-on—how it looks and feels, what motivates it, how it can be stopped. Drawing on firsthand interviews with convicted war criminals from the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), James Dawes leads us into the frightening territory where soldiers perpetrated some of the worst crimes imaginable: murder, torture, rape, medical experimentation on living subjects. Transcending conventional reporting and commentary, Dawes’s narrative weaves together unforgettable segments from the interviews with consideration of the troubling issues they raise. Telling the personal story of his journey to Japan, Dawes also lays bare the cultural misunderstandings and ethical compromises that at times called the legitimacy of his entire project into question. For this book is not just about the things war criminals do. It is about what it is like, and what it means, to befriend them. Do our stories of evil deeds make a difference? Can we depict atrocity without sensational curiosity? Anguished and unflinchingly honest, as eloquent as it is raw and painful, Evil Men asks hard questions about the most disturbing capabilities human beings possess, and acknowledges that these questions may have no comforting answers.