Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil

«Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil» is an important and timely book that challenges readers to reconsider the nature of good and evil. The author, Alain Badiou, offers a positive doctrine he calls "the ethics of truths," arguing that the true philosopher must first determine what is "good" or "true" and identify evil simply as the betrayal or abandonment of these truths. Badiou uses set theory to explain the nature of evil and its place in the world. He argues that we should not simply condemn evil but also try to understand and prevent it. In this short book, the philosopher challenges contemporary liberal ethics, which he believes mistakenly tries to first dogmatically define evil and then describes good or truth as its absence.