Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the concept of evil. When Nietzsche killed off God he had it in for evil as well: In Beyond Good and Evil, he constructed an argument against what he called the “herd morality” of Christianity, and he complained "everything that elevates an individual above the herd and intimidates the neighbour is henceforth called evil." Nietzsche claimed that it was a dangerous idea that distorted human nature, ‘evil’ was invented by the church and was a completely alien concept to the noble philosophers of the ancient world. Was he right, did Christianity really invent the idea of evil? And has the idea meant anything more than excessively bad? With Jones Erwin, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Limerick; Stephen Mulhall, Tutor in Philosophy at New College, Oxford University; Margaret Atkins, Lecturer in Theology at Trinity and All Saints College, University of Leeds.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the inartime podcast. For more details about inartime and for our terms of use |
| 0:05.4 | Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program |
| 0:11.3 | Hello in beyond good and evil Nietzsche constructed an argument against what he called the herd morality of Christianity |
| 0:18.4 | He complained quote everything that elevates an individual above the herd and intimidates the neighbor is henceforth called evil on quote |
| 0:25.7 | Nietzsche believed that it was a dangerous idea that distorted human nature that evil was invented by a church |
| 0:32.4 | Which worshiped the weak and was a completely alien concept to the ideas of the noble philosophers of the ancient world |
| 0:39.0 | Was he right then did Christianity really invent the idea of evil and has the idea ever meant anything more than |
| 0:45.2 | Excessively bad with me to discuss the place of evil in Western philosophies Jones Irwin lecturing philosophy at the University of Limerick |
| 0:53.0 | Stephen Mollhall Tutoring philosophy at New College Oxford University and Margaret Atkins lecture in theology at Trinity and all science college at the University of Leeds |
| 1:02.1 | Jones Irwin Plato used the term how do you pronounce it KAKLN? |
| 1:05.9 | Kacon Kacon in the Republic. What did he mean by this and how close is this to a classical definition of evil? |
| 1:13.0 | Well, I think there is a question as to whether the concept of evil arrives until Christianity as to whether there really is a Greek conception of evil at all |
| 1:20.2 | Because in Plato there are some paradoxes in regard to his conception of evil |
| 1:24.3 | He seems to regard evil as a privation an absence of being and defines good as being and therefore evil as by definition non-being |
| 1:32.1 | So in one sense evil doesn't strictly speaking existed all it's a it's a privation of good |
| 1:39.3 | But on the other hand evil seems to play a part in his text in terms of the characters he describes |
| 1:44.6 | So for example if we take the Republic we have a figure like Trosimicus who is is very much a character of evil |
| 1:49.7 | So Plato from a metaphysical point of view is saying that evil is a privation |
| 1:54.4 | On the other hand he's saying that it plays a very great part in in the lives of of people and is a very powerful force that needs to be |
| 2:01.6 | Negated and worked against and I think this this paradox in terms of the description of evil both |
| 2:06.6 | Seeing it as powerful, but also as denying it any real status |
| 2:10.4 | metaphysically |
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