Let these people decide what we are allowed to believe in, or not. Let them decide on matters which impact our daily lives. In this 36 half-hour lecture series, Mathewes explores different aspects of the question of evil.
Early scriptures and tenets of Christianity, Judaism and Islam are explored for their different interpretations of the nature of evil. Lecture 11 on Islam was of particular interest to me. A fact known to students of history, but generally unknown to the masses, who view Islam with suspicion as a great menace. I found the Islamic origin story of the Devil particularly revealing. Their take on Satan is that he was originally a djinn or angel called Iblis Shaytan, who refused to bow down to his Lord's creation, Adam.
It reveals a subtle understanding about the complexity of our motivations for doing malice. What keeps you from prostrating yourself to one whom I have made with Both My Hands. Are you excessively glad to fall prostrate to Adam or are you one of the high commended? It isn't very difficult to extrapolate why women are so reviled in some Islamic nations where the more humane aspects of Islam aren't much prized.
DARVO: acronym used to describe a common strategy of abusers. Deny the abuse ever took place; Attack the victim for holding the abuser accountable; lie and claim that they, the abuser, are the real victim in the situation, thus Reversing the Victim and Offender.
Also a common form of gaslighting. Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or group covertly sows seeds of doubt in their targets, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment, often evoking in them cognitive dissonance and other changes, including low self-esteem.
Using denial, misdirection, contradiction, and misinformation, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim's beliefs. Instances can range from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents occurred, to belittling the victim's emotions and feelings, to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.
The term originated from the British play Gas Light , performed as Angel Street in the United States, and its and film adaptations both titled Gaslight. The term has now been used in clinical psychological literature, as well as in political commentary and philosophy. View all 13 comments. Jagger, K. Richards, Sympathy for the Devil , This audio-course is an exceptional study of the nature of EVIL, as examined and imagined in art, philosophy, theology, sociology and psychology.
I recommend it with the proviso below if you write much or if you are fascinated by the forces of good and evil in film and other arts, theology, the psychology of those who commit atrocities or in politics. The Professor did a remarkably good job on an exceedingly ambitious subject. Proviso: The lectures get rather deep at times, making it difficult to follow if you're doing something else, such as driving, while listening.
I've gone back and forth on whether to give it 4 stars or 5. I'll say, 5 if this subject is something in which you are very interested; 4 otherwise. View 2 comments. Despite the title, this series of lectures does not, in the end, actually explain why evil exists.
These lectures take us on an absorbing journey from ancient Babylonia to the twentieth century with many stops in between. This is a very rich subject. Like pornography, evil is difficult to define in any satisfactory way but we tend to know it when we see it.
Also, there were points, in some of the later lectures, when the ideas being expressed were so abstract and convoluted that I found it difficult to keep my mind from wandering. It was, nevertheless a wonderful brain-stretch. I highly recommend this one. View 1 comment. Did I learn something? Did I understand everything? Probably not. Did I enjoy listening to this and kept thinking about it whenever I stopped listening?
Do I recommend this? Most definitely. Dec 18, Bruce Katz rated it liked it Shelves: audio-books , great-courses-a-v. A mixed bag. Some wonderful sessions in which I learned a great deal, and others that left me nothing but perplexed.
Part of the problem, I feel, has to do with the fact that no effort is made to say what "Evil"is. Are "Good and Evil" the same as "Good and Bad"? Does Evil imply agency? Was the Black Death an outburst of Evil? Was the Lisbon earthquake? Is the attribution of Evil contingent on time and place? For example, was the Spanish Inquisition an example of Evil? Is the Evil of taking the L A mixed bag. Is the Evil of taking the Lord's name in vain or working on the Sabbath in any way like the Evil of the Shoah?
Professor Mathewes is a good lecturer. He's smart, personable, and he clearly knows his subject very well. I wouldn't hesitate to take this course IRL so I could ask questions. Mar 11, Jim rated it really liked it Shelves: philosophy , religion , social , literature. From Gilgamesh to Oppenheimer Dr Mathews delves into the history of what we call evil For those thinking of listening to this lecture series know that Dr Mathews offers a well-organized, and very clearly presented set of lectures that are sometimes deeply philosophical, and, to some, spiritual, especially when he relates the thoughts of notable Christian writers.
I found the lectures stimulating and far more interesting than I thought they would be. At this point I would love to dive into a very-much one sided discussion about the philosophy of evil I would have loved to be in the classroom in which these lectures were presented and how evil and goodness for that matter are manifestations of our individual minds This could explain the great difficulty mankind has had in defining 'evil' with any degree of certainty.
Sin, virtue, altruism, just like beauty is in the eyes and mind of the beholder. Highly recommended. Aug 19, F. This was an interesting dive into western theological and philosophical discussions about what the nature of evil truly is, where it comes from, what it is, and whether or not evil really even exists.
What this didn't cover was anything from the Eastern schools of religion or philosophy, but that wasn't neglected without mention.
Mathewes states out front that this will be the case and that there could be an entire companion volume of lectures delivered on that subject. This was interesting and This was an interesting dive into western theological and philosophical discussions about what the nature of evil truly is, where it comes from, what it is, and whether or not evil really even exists.
This was interesting and it might have been made more so due to my listening to this while I was reading the book First They Killed My Father. Thinking about those events in the context of some of the lectures and discourses from this audiobook was a really fascinating journey and one that made both of them more worthwhile.
The title was clickbait enough for me and I admit I had preconceived ideas of what I thought this Great Course was going to reveal to me. I recommend the mindset of a blank but single focus if you start this course. After having to listen multiple times to the first 10 chapters, I got the pulse of the material. The info presented on psychology, soc The title was clickbait enough for me and I admit I had preconceived ideas of what I thought this Great Course was going to reveal to me.
The info presented on psychology, sociology and political science were exceptionally fascinating. Please choose whether or not you want other users to be able to see on your profile that this library is a favorite of yours.
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Please enter the message. Please verify that you are not a robot. This book is taught by Charles Mathewes whose command of the subject is conveyed in his ability to speak about the subject matter of each lecture without notes or other resources. His command of each subject chapter is superb, captivating, insightful and enticing.
Listeners may well want to read further resources he mentions to comprehend the magnitude of the subject matter. This series is one of the very best offered by The Great Courses Believe it or not, this is the most uplifting and enlightening course imaginable.
Mathewes is the most engaging instructor on this complex and timely subject, as he touches on and connects such disparate histories and philosophies, and brings them together so understandably. He's great to listen to and watch, as he's thoughtful and approachable.
I can't say I have a single regret for daring to look into what I feared might be a too-dark subject for me. I am equipped! Great insight into evil vs. Very insightful, well researched and nearly perfectly delivered through the person of Dr.
This is a comprehensive and well designed course that opens up the suject of evil in human affairs. The presentational skills are outstanding. This lecture series was a pleasure to watch and listen to. The professor knows his history and philosophy and presents the various views succinctly and eloquently. My worlview has been affected and will be radically re shaped by these brilliant lectures, some of which I shall listen to again making more notes.
He is a serious and learned communicator whose books I shall try to read too. Although evil is not everyone's favourite topic, much of what we most deeply struggle with, in life, is some form of evil and yet, ironically, the 'advanced' modern world has few categories or tools to think about it.
This course offers diverse tools and categories for many hours of analysis and thought. Even though evil itself is not 'scientifically' dissected by Dr Matthewes which those who instinctively know what it is are not bothered by , the inspired ways of thinking about it which he explores, from St Augustine to Calvin to Conrad and beyond, gives one sufficient insight for a subject which the self-deceived and escapist modern world desperately needs to master.
I could barely stop watching. There is much to admire in this course. The professor is smart, warm, and obviously knows his subject very well. I learned a great deal about thinkers whom I knew by name but not by their work, and about others whose works I knew but was made to view in a different light.
The difficulty I had with the course largely had to do with how detached from the real world some of the sessions were. Are "good and evil" the same as "good and bad"? Was the Lisbon earthquake "evil"? Was the Black Death? Does use of the word "evil" imply agency? Is characterizing something as 'evil' contingent on time and place? Was the Inquisition an outburst of evil? In the classroom I might have asked these questions. That's not an option here.
Still, as I said, I learned a lot. One minor point: If Professor Mathewes is teaching a course like this at the university, I hope he's corrected some of the inaccuracies present in his discussion of Hannah Arendt and the Holocaust.
They don't take anything away from his main point, but I found them distracting. This was one of the most serious intellectual surveys of a topic that I have had the pleasure of listening to via the Great Courses.
No one could dispute the significance of the subject-- and Professor Mathewes did a phenomenal job of approaching it from many different angles. Although it was a difficult task to present so many divergent ways of viewing evil fairly and on their own terms, while at the same time retaining the intellectual integrity to critique them when they fell short, Professor Mathewes threaded that needle very well.
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Yes, there is a transcript available for the course titled Why Evil Exists. I hope this information is helpful. The Big Questions of Philosophy. The Real History of Secret Societies.
Utopia and Terror in the 20th Century. Capitalism vs. Socialism: Comparing Economic Systems. Professor, University of Virginia. Course No. Choose a Format Instant Video. Instant Audio. Add to Cart Choose a format in order to add this course to your cart. Add to Wishlist Please choose a format in order to add this course to your Wish List. Charles Mathewes, Ph. The same energies of intellect and will that led mankind to cure innumerable diseases and put men on the Moon led us also to poison gas and ICBM's.
Why do humans do evil? What is behind "man's inhumanity to man," the troubling fact of human actions that produce suffering and destruction? Is it ultimately a spiritual or cosmic problem? Is it a consequence of social systems or power structures? Or is it some inner deficit of human nature, Consider the range of human thought across history, which has sought understanding of evil.
First, examine three dominant historical views of the nature of evil. Then, grapple with the key questions of abstract theory versus concrete description, the transcendence or mundaneness of evil, and evil's function in nature and civilization.
In the Enuma Elish , the Babylonian creation myth, see how the dualism of good and bad divine powers locates evil as an innate structure of reality. In the Epic of Gilgamesh , probe one of the earliest recorded attempts to understand suffering and to find meaning in the face of death and evil.
This lecture explores contrasting views of evil and suffering in ancient Greece. In Greek tragic drama, trace the cruel paradoxes of fate and responsibility, under divine governance, that afflict the characters. Conversely, uncover the historian Thucydides' linking of evil to "accidents" of circumstance and chance in his account of the Peloponnesian War. The inquiry continues with the seminal views of Plato and Aristotle.
Follow Plato's developing views of evil as "miseducation," a political fact of human society and ultimately as metaphysical revolt. Then ponder Aristotle's "mundane" vision of malice and evil as akrasia , weakness of will, and a misordering of fundamental human drives. The Hebrew Bible roots evil in various forms of rebellion. In the Hebrew book of Genesis, see how the Fall actualizes an intrinsic potential for evil.
Then consider three faces of rebellion: the rejection of God's plan the Fall , interhuman strife Cain and Abel , and direct rivalry with God the Tower of Babel. The Hebrew Bible also offers a contrasting view of evil and suffering—as phenomena reflecting the mysterious will of God.
Explore the implications of the covenant between God and Abraham, and Abraham's mandated sacrifice of Isaac. In the book of Job, see how Job's faith is established through determined acceptance of suffering.
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