When is it right to call some act – or someone – “evil”?

FromThe Minefield

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When is it right to call some act – or someone – “evil”?

FromThe Minefield

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Length:

54 minutes

Released:

Feb 22, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

What are we trying to convey when we reach for a word like “evil”? Is it something about a person’s actions or character? Is it what they do or the manner in which they do it?

Released:

Feb 22, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

In a world marked by wicked social problems, The Minefield helps you negotiate the ethical dilemmas, contradictory claims and unacknowledged complicities of modern life.

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Democratic politics is being challenged, but is it changing?: What are we to make of the fact that, in a time when democratic politics is being radically challenged by a series of seismic shocks, and when ideas or options once thought impossible are now squarely back ‘on the table’, our political leaders and their opponents have rarely seemed more conventional? David Runciman, Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and host of the Talking Politics podcast, joins us to dissect this political moment. by The Minefield
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Can you enjoy sport without crowd noise?: Teams across codes and countries are facing the prospects of competing in empty or largely empty stadiums. Whatever that might mean for the players themselves, the lack of crowd noise is proving too off-putting for fans watching from home. Kasey Symons from Swinburne University joins us to discuss why. by The Minefield
47 min listen
The dangers of 'clipification': The media has always been in the business of isolating and mass circulating 'newsworthy' pieces or slivers of reality. But we are living in an age of 'clipification', where reality itself is broken up into highlights tailor-made to be shared and viewed again and again. What does democracy look like in an age of 'clipification'? by The Minefield
51 min listen
2019 — the year where nothing really mattered?: What stands out to you about 2019? This week, for the last show of 2019, Waleed and Scott discuss the year that was, what it all meant, and what it means for the future of our common life. by The Minefield
41 min listen
Is literary fiction necessary for the moral life?: What does a society lose when it neglects the moral discipline of reading literary fiction? by The Minefield
46 min listen
False necessities: Is 'taste' enough to morally justify the mass slaughter of animals?: Is our culinary enjoyment enough to justify a complicity in cruelty which our fellow citizens find reprehensible? by The Minefield
48 min listen
2020 — why does the future look so much like the past?: Back in 2008, newly elected prime minister Kevin Rudd convened a summit of Australia’s "best and brightest" to discuss what kind of nation they wanted Australia to be in 2020. Now that we’re here, 2020 doesn’t look very much like the future at all. What happened? Is there a lesson here about the importance of adopting a sceptical posture, a profound reticence to claim to know, much less predict, our political future? Or are we just reading the wrong signs? by The Minefield
48 min listen
Can we overcome terminal disagreement in our politics and morality?: If the recent glut of "democracy in crisis" books is anything to go by, there is a sense that something has gone wrong in our common life. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has diagnosed the increasing 'tribalism' in and of our civic and political life particularly acutely, and he joins Waleed and Scott to discuss whether and how we might break free from its Manichean absolutism. by The Minefield
45 min listen
Is it time to end simulated sex on television and film?: Why, in the light of the #MeToo movement, have we not questioned the aesthetic, much less moral, justification for the disproportionate amount of nudity and simulated sex required of female actors? Do we really need to prolong this puerile reliance on sex to attract viewers? by The Minefield
46 min listen
What (new) forms of living might the coronavirus produce?: What new forms of life together — of modesty, prudence, simplicity, mutuality, sociality and cooperation — might we discover under the conditions of scarcity and social isolation imposed by the coronavirus, that perhaps we didn’t envision in more 'normal' times? by The Minefield
39 min listen
In the aftermath of the Iowa caucus …: Every four years, a disproportionate amount of attention is focused on the unlikely midwestern state of Iowa. In a very real way, the Iowa caucuses encapsulate the profound political and ethical challenges that confront the Democratic Party in its bid to defeat Donald Trump in November — challenges that continue to bedevil democratic politics in other countries: How to mobilise voters around a common cause, without tipping over into either absolutism or unprincipled, 'whatever-it-takes' pragmatism? by The Minefield
50 min listen
Free riding: Why act, when acting is likely to make no difference?: Are there reasons to act in a particular way, to willingly make some sacrifice, do something which may be good, and which we may even be committed to, when our actions (or lack of action) are likely to be of no consequence? Is size detrimental to democratic community? Professor Roger Crisp joins us to discuss whether the free rider problem highlights the limitation of moral philosophy. by The Minefield
44 min listen
Is capitalism inimical to ethics?: Does capitalism cultivate an ethos, an understanding of the nature of social relations and mutual obligation that is inimical to what might be called the demands of "democratic morality"? by The Minefield
20 min listen
Ordinary vices: What’s wrong with lying?: This week on The Minefield, we explore what Montaigne referred to as "that accursed vice" — the most corrupt and all-corrupting of them all: lying. by The Minefield
44 min listen
Is there a moral imperative to wear masks?: The COVID-19 pandemic presents us with an all-too concrete situation in which seemingly minor, individual actions can have dire consequences for thousands of others. Is the pandemic an extreme situation that makes unusual demands of us, or does it simply make visible the kinds of moral demands which are upon us even in more 'normal' times? by The Minefield
50 min listen
What does the coronavirus reveal about us?: Is there a way of responding to the coronavirus that is both effective and ethical? That contributes to the tasks of social cohesion and mutual concern? by The Minefield
41 min listen
Why does democracy demand transparency?: Does representative democracy depend on practices of public scrutiny, or exercises of 'popular sovereignty' between elections? by The Minefield
48 min listen
Should children be given the vote?: Cambridge historian and host of the Talking Politics podcast, David Runciman, has put forward a radical proposal to extend the vote to children as young as six. Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens discuss whether this is just what is needed to recover a healthy democratic culture. by The Minefield
47 min listen
Is COVID-19 the end of globalisation?: COVID-19 has reversed the dynamics and inner-logic of globalisation. As we begin imagining a world after COVID-19, will things go back to “normal”? Should things go back to “normal” by The Minefield
45 min listen
After the fires, are we invited to moral community with trees?: Over the summer months, Australia has witnessed the devastation of forests and the immolation of wildlife on an unimaginable scale. The emotional or even the tragic content of the bushfires has been — understandably — reserved for the loss of human life and home and livelihood, and for the loss of some non-human animals. But why do we grieve fauna and not flora? What if these fires present to us an invitation we refuse to heed: an invitation to rediscover moral companionship, moral community with trees? by The Minefield
44 min listen
Can America’s post-election divisions be overcome?: While Trump’s conduct, cruelty, and incompetence disqualified him in the eyes of a majority of Americans, very nearly half of the nation voted for and remain fiercely devoted to the president. America is divided, but so is the Democratic party. What does this mean for the future? by The Minefield
47 min listen
What if the greatest threat to a free media was from within?: Our lives are saturated with 'news'; but far from creating informed citizens, this is producing forgetful, inattentive citizens. Megan Le Masurier joins us to discuss whether "slow journalism" could help us remember what matters. by The Minefield
43 min listen
How can we live with coronavirus uncertainty?: In little more than a month, the coronavirus has exploded the sense of certainty, confidence, optimism and control on which so much of modern life, the economy and politics are predicated. Were these always just illusions? by The Minefield
38 min listen
Can we cultivate social solidarity in a time of physical distancing?: Any meaningful recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will require imagination, risk, solidarity and vulnerability; it will mean refusing to ‘free-ride’ and a willingness to sacrifice. How can we cultivate this capacity for social solidarity in our time of social fragmentation and mutual distancing? by The Minefield
45 min listen
Ordinary vices: Is pride an affront to, or the basis of, dignity?: Can pride be ‘redeemed’, and form the basis of human dignity, or is pride as such a form of moral corruption, a debased form of moral vision? by The Minefield
41 min listen
Why do we want celebrities to be 'authentic'?: Why it is that we want to know the 'truth' about celebrities? What happens when the very promise of transparency, of authenticity — of intimacy, even — becomes part of the carefully cultivated appearance of celebrity itself? by The Minefield
46 min listen
Can we avoid cruelty in the face of COVID-19?: As societies, we are having to grapple with the question of whether some will be made to bear a disproportionate amount of the cost of our collective response to COVID-19. by The Minefield
37 min listen
How to acknowledge the debt of historical injustice?: What does it mean for a nation - whether it be the United States, Germany, or Australia - fully to acknowledge the truth of its past, to drag its moral debts into the light of day? Should a sense of guilt play any role in that acknowledgement? by The Minefield
52 min listen
International Women’s Day – cause for celebration, or commiseration?: The corporate rebranding of International Women’s Day (IWD) couldn’t be further from the day’s revolutionary roots, or any meaningful discussion of women’s liberation. It negates any discussion of the nature of power under patriarchy, and how relations of power between women and men might be genuinely transformed. by The Minefield
39 min listen
Is there a moral case against the COVID-19 “shutdown”?: Calls are mounting for an end to the “shutdown” that has been imposed by governments throughout the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – including from some highly regarded philosophers. Are there more humane, more democratic ways of responding to the threat of the virus? by The Minefield
45 min listen

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Is the rise of the far right in Europe inevitable? It’s complicated: The results of the recent European Parliament elections have only fuelled the growing concern across the member nations of the European Union that far-right, radical right, Eurosceptic and otherwise anti-immigrant parties are, once again, on the rise. by The Minefield
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Is it wrong to “rank” works of art?: Apple Music recently released its list of the “100 Best Albums”. It was, without question, a clever marketing technique — but one that raises the problem of whether it’s appropriate to rank works of high human achievement in the first place. by The Minefield
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How can trust be cultivated in a time of pervasive suspicion?: Because it is sustained by nothing more substantial than a weave of trusted institutions, shared habits and moral commitments, democracies are highly susceptible to the corrosive effects of distrust; Jedediah Purdy joins Waleed and Scott to discuss the necessary conditions for democratic life. by The Minefield
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What do we lose by succumbing to conspiracy-mindedness?: Ours is a time when institutional distrust, digital disinformation and mutual suspicion have become pervasive — but can democracy withstand epistemic and social fragmentation of this kind? by The Minefield
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In a screen saturated age, is literacy under threat?: Professor Maryanne Wolf joins Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens to discuss whether we are entering an age of widespread moral illiteracy — an incapacity to engage in the processes that make up the habit of deep reading. by The Minefield
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What do we lose when we lose the capacity for boredom?: It is fair to say that boredom is a distinctly modern terror. But, as Stan Grant discusses with Waleed and Scott, what if existential boredom points us to our deeper need? by The Minefield
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When is it right to call some act – or someone – “evil”?

When is it right to call some act – or someone – “evil”?

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from The Minefield

Related podcast episodes