"The New Demons" combines an original investigation of twentieth century philosophical debates on evil and a critical engagement with the latest research on power and biopolitics in order to offer a unique vision of our contemporary human condition.
As long as we care about suffering in the world, says political philosopher Simona Forti, we are compelled to inquire into the question of evil. But is the concept of evil still useful in a postmodern landscape where absolute values have been leveled and relativized by a historicist perspective? Given our current unwillingness to judge others, what signposts remain to guide our ethical behavior?
Surveying the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western philosophical debates on evil, Forti concludes that it is time to leave behind what she calls "the Dostoevsky paradigm": the dualistic vision of an omnipotent monster pitted against absolute, helpless victims. No longer capable of grasping the normalization of evil in today's world-whose structures of power have been transformed-this paradigm has exhausted its explanatory force.
In its place, Forti offers a different genealogy of the relationship between evil and power, one that finally calls into question power's recurrent link to transgression. At the center of contemporary evil she posits the passive attitude towards rule-following, the need for normalcy, and the desire for obedience nurtured by our contemporary mass democracies. In our times, she contends, evil must be explored in tandem with our stubborn desire to stay alive at all costs as much as with our deep need for recognition: the new modern absolutes. A courageous book, New Demons extends an original, inspiring call to ethical living in a biopolitical age.
"Simona Forti is one of the most interesting Italian philosophers today. She is known for her studies on Arendt, and lately for her philosophical work on "totalitarian thanatopolitics" and neoliberal biopolitics. Her latest mono- graph,
New Demons: Rethinking Evil and Power Today, is a challenging and innovative book that, in my opinion, is destined to become an unavoidable point of orientation for studies and scholarly investigations on the topic. Moreover, it's a courageous book."
