A podcast by the students of the University of Warwick’s Philosophy Department featuring long-form interviews with its academics.
Listen if you want to hear in-depth but accessible conversations between students and academics, talking enthusiastically about the philosophy that interests them.
12| The Philosophy of Evil — with David Bather Woods – Common Room Philosophy
This episode is an interview/discussion with David Bather Woods. David is an assistant professor in the University of Warwick's philosophy department, and a previous guest of this podcast.
In this episode, we discuss various questions about evil and evil-doers, including:
– Do you have to be free to be evil?
– If we aim to understand evil-doers, do we risk forgiving them?
– If our situations were different, could we all do evil things?
– What makes an evil act evil, rather than just very bad?
Some links:
– David's popular episode on Schopenhauer
Books David recommended:
– Being Evil: a philosophical perspective by Luke Russell
– Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil by Hannah Arendt
– At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and Its Realities by John Améry
– Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy by Susan Neiman
– The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil by Claudia Card
– Evil: A History edited by Andrew P. Chignell
If you have any feedback for the show, positive or critical, it would be very welcome. Check out the anonymous feedback form here.
- 12| The Philosophy of Evil — with David Bather Woods
- 11| Can fiction help us see the world as it really is? — Iris Murdoch, her Literature and Philosophy, with Miles Leeson
- 10| How to listen better: to poetry and philosophy- with Karen Simecek
- 9| Moral Deference and Practical Deliberation – with Adina Covaci
- 8| The Rule of the Knowers, Justified Protests and the Duties of Democratic Citizens- with Sameer Bajaj
Click here if you want to listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or elsewhere.
Conducted and edited by Toby Tremlett. Cover art by Alicia Lukman.
Pharos. 