Absolute Evil is not the kingdom of hell. The inhabitants of hell are ourselves, i.e., those who pay our painful, embarrassing, humanistic duties to society and who are compromised by our intellectually dubious commitment to virtue, which can be defined by the perpetual smear-word of French polemic: the bourgeois. (Bourgeois equals humanist.) This word has long been anathema in France where categories are part of the ruling notion of logique. The word cannot be readily matched in England or America.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author argues that ordinary people fulfilling social duties represent a compromised form of evil. This is linked to the French concept of the bourgeois as a humanist who is trapped by virtue.
- In plain terms
- Ordinary people bound by social duty are seen as a form of compromised evil.
- What can you take from it?
- Conventional virtue can mask a deeper moral compromise.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is duty always a compromise?
- Can virtue be evil?
Another view
This view of evil is highly abstract and debatable.
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