Why Evil Exists

By: Charles Mathewes, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Charles Mathewes

Length: 19 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Whether we view it in theological, philosophical, or psychological terms, evil remains both a deeply intriguing question and a crucially relevant global issue. Now, Professor Mathewes offers you a richly provocative and revealing encounter with the question of human evil - a dynamic inquiry into Western civilization's greatest thinking and insight on this critical subject.

With the inspired guidance of these 36 lectures, you'll engage with how both individual thinkers and larger trends of thought have faced evil, studying the work of major theologians, philosophers, poets, political theorists, novelists, psychologists, and journalists. You'll study the psychology of evil in Islamic theology, as well as the weighty meditations of St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Anselm of Lyon, and Martin Luther. And among contemporary views, you'll grasp Arthur Cohen's extraordinary post-Holocaust reformulation of faith in a God whose reality "is our prefiguration" - the promise of what we may become.

Parallel with the theological accounts, you'll also study primary currents of Western secular thinking on evil in the work of key philosophers and social theorists. You'll investigate Thomas Hobbes's proposition that good and evil are invented constructs of human language, and Kant's conception of morality as located in the human will. You contemplate Freud's hypothesis of the "death drive," an innate, destructive force of the psyche, and Hannah Arendt's highly influential analysis of the "moral inversion" of Nazism.

So why does evil exist in the world? Join a deeply insightful teacher in facing this fascinating, primordial question - a chance to bring your own most discerning thought to a crucial challenge for our world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2011 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2011 The Great Courses

The good of evil

Excellent course be cause of its many suggestions of the way that evil can be dealt with. If life is a donut with a big hole should we savor it resignedly or heroically or transcend it and be transfigured by it. As Yogi Berra said when you get to a fork take it.....thank you Prfessor.

A History of Theories on Evil

What did you love best about Why Evil Exists?

I enjoyed the contemporary theories presented the most.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I thought the theories surrounding genocide were the most interesting.

What about Professor Charles Mathewes’s performance did you like?

He is obviously very passionate and knowledgeable about the subject.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it was way too dense and too long.

Any additional comments?

I felt that theorists' views from earlier time periods were not as easy to understand or as enjoyable to learn about compared to the more contemporary perspectives. That said, the lecture was comprised of more historical views than modern views from the industrial period onward, unfortunately for me, but I still enjoyed the lectures overall.

a must for humanity

Too little in the form of intellectuals are among out millennial generation. Groups such as Black Lives Matter lack any foundation for their cause. We need modern day thinkers like Martin Luther King and not pokemon iphone kids without an agenda taking extreme measures without context to make a point. This lecture will be a foundation to enhance my goals to provide my children an understanding of the principles outlined from this pool of knowledge.

Karma has been good and the opportunity to come across this is from the good work our millennials did to get me to "click" the icon.

something to think about .

Amazing and exceeded my expectations

I learned so much and can think about things more critically now. The professor showed such a breadth of knowledge and had a passion in his delivery. Well worth the purchase and the time to listen.

Great wave top discussions on evil

I got this book so my wife and I could have something interesting to listen to. It started a bit slow and got a little dull in the middle but by the end I was listening as often as possible!

Religion and Philosophy Course

This course is a solid survey of religious and philosophical considerations of evil in the western world including a chapter on the scientific studies of evil in modern history.

If I am being honest, this was probably my least favorite of the Great Courses so far but even so it was a worthwhile listen. Here you will gain a sense of how the modern competing and complementary views on evil evolved and the challenges they face in the view of modern life and tragedy-in the western world, anyway.

Best Audiobook I've Ever Listened To

Any additional comments?

I'm nearing graduation and after four years at a hum-drum state university, I can testify that I've never once sat in a classroom with a professor of this caliber. Mathewes is no bureaucrat with tenure going through the motions till retirement, he's a genuine and contagiously engaged scholar. He knows how to lecture and hold a student's interest. He never goes off on irrelevant tangents or gets bogged down in technical minutia. Each lecture is painstakingly researched and meticulously prepared to be intellectually and emotionally provoking.

His thorough knowledge of history, literacy and philosophy make him a veritable well-spring of experience and wisdom. The topic itself resists easy answers and Mathewes never offers any. He acts as a medium between Western civilization's greatest philosophers on evil and his audience. He distills their wisdom into terms readily available and digestible to the modern listener --with or without any background in these disciplines. Evil is every person's concern and Mathewes makes sure his lectures are accessible to every person who confronts evil in their life, but for all that, he never talks down to the reader, nor does he over-simplify things in a way that alienates those with some grounding in this subject.

I agree with another reviewer that the series gets off to a slow start, but after a few lectures Mathewes hits his stride and the series really takes off. This is quite simply the most pleasant and intellectually engaging audio book from audible I've ever downloaded. The material and depth of the lectures is dense enough to warrant a re-listen, especially after I acquaint myself more with the many texts and authors he references throughout the lecture series. Which was another great part of this series. Mathewes doesn't confine himself to classical philosophers and religious authorities, but branches into perspectives on evil through great works of literature in fiction, poetry, and our modern take on the subject post-holocaust and post 911. Whatever expectations I had when I purchased this audio book were met and exceeded. This lecture series is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in a genuine exploration of evil in the human condition.

Highly Recommended!

Thought-provoking, challenging, accessible.

Don't allow the nineteen hour running time put you off this outstanding meditation on good and evil. Charles Matthews has a gift -- truly a gift -- for making challenging material approachable and understandable. I have listened to numerous Great Courses presentations and, while all have been excellent, "Why Evil Exists" has moved me to reflection in a deeper and more profound way than anything I have listened to on Audible. But, even if you are not interested in reflecting in a profound way, this course is extremely interesting simply for the historical survey of thinking on good and evil, and is enjoyable on that basis alone.

Awesome

Professor Charles Mathewes does an excellent job with this lecture-- I kept coming back for his wonderful insight into the topic. He provides a beautiful understanding of the people he talks of, and frames their ideas in a way very much concerned to the problem of evil. Very insightful, thought provoking, and entertaining. Bravo Professor Mathewes.

My best Audible experience

I am very much impressed with the degree of zeal, subtlety and passion poured in this course. My initial prejudices were proven unfounded: the author presented the thoughts of different thinkers, from St Augustine to Marx with honesty and care, and the religious biases I expected from his background were nowhere to be found. That is something very difficult to achieve, except when author genuinely admires the richness of human though. The course is excellent since the beginning, but its finest hour is in the final chapters. The language is plain, without boastful displays of erudition, placing no unnecessary hindrances to understanding. But the challenge here is not to understand, but to confront the learning with the experience of our actual world, our thought and our deeds. And if the course hits only your intellect and fails to dialogue with your emotions, you really lost something.