Virality of Evil : Philosophy in the Time of a Pandemic

Nearly two years on, the experiences and trajectories of the pandemic across the world have confirmed that it has been in the grasp of a systemic malaise, ‘le mal’. Everywhere evil is as a viral condition: in the etymological sense of a poison and in the media-theoretical sense, in its uncontrollable spread, of a contagion. It is time to revaluate the concept of evil, raising it as perhaps the only term through which philosophy can reflect on the pandemic. This collection contains responses from moral and political philosophy, epistemology, and ontology, literary studies, theology and psychoanalysis. It is a collective meditation which takes a plural approach to the sufferings of different parts of the world, deploying a stance dedicated to place and specificity.Their distinct contributions arise from multiple traditions, with voices from within and beyond the “western” canon. The eighteen mediations decline the temptation to isolate the pandemic as a simple great event, equal across the globe that it continues to devastate. Instead, like the witches of Macbeth, they come together as a gathering to speak of this state of evil, for it is our own condition. They explore the hesitating question, which yet confesses a terrifying suspicion: is it possible to speak of evil in the time of the pandemic? Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction Notes Bibliography Part I: Acts of Evil: Part I Chapter 1: Up Against the Wall 1 2 3 Note Chapter 2: Modals of Lost Responsibilities Notes Bibliography Chapter 3: Badly Exhausted Notes Bibliography Chapter 4: Mirages of the Act Notes Bibliography Chapter 5: Is Evil an Illusion? 1 2 3 4 5 6 Notes Bibliography Part II: Who Is Evil: Part II Chapter 6: Evil, Time, Human Chapter 7: From Panic to Ecological Immunity Collapsing the ‘Alveolus’ of Our Economic Society Disease and Mortal Body State of Emergency The Case of Japan Where Did the Virus Come From? The Ecology of Immunity Notes Bibliography Chapter 8: Life, Knowledge and Fear in the Context of COVID-19 Notes References Chapter 9: ‘The World Is a Vampire’: Of Pandemics and Parasites Notes Bibliography Chapter 10: Vulnerability or Naked Life?: Political Imagination during the Pandemic Notes Bibliography Part III: Viral Discriminations, or Where Is Evil?: Part III Chapter 11: Sad Tropics, Sad Planet: COVID-19 Notes Bibliography Chapter 12: Phobos: Evil and Urgency in a Conflictual Pandemic Introduction The Evil in Words Notes References Chapter 13: It Would Be Nice to Testify That We Are Aware of Our Night Bibliography Chapter 14: ‘Shuffering and Shmiling’: Life, Disease and Death in Burkina Faso Notes Part IV: Sighting Evil 102: Part IV Chapter 15: The Proximity of Death and the Remoteness of Totality Notes Works Cited Chapter 16: ‘But (Let’s) Deliver Us from Evil’: From ‘Pandemic’ Evil to Evil as ‘Pandemisation’ Notes Bibliography Chapter 17: Nature’s Revenge?: On the Coronavirus and ‘Natural Evil’ Notes Bibliography Chapter 18: Don’t,: Or the Thought Cat’apostrophed Notes Bibliography Index About the Contributors and Translators About the Translators Nearly two years on, the experiences and trajectories of the pandemic across the world have confirmed that it has been in the grasp of a systemic malaise, 'le mal'. Everywhere evil is as a viral condition: in the etymological sense of a poison and in the media-theoretical sense, in its uncontrollable spread, of a contagion. It is time to revaluate the concept of evil, raising it as perhaps the only term through which philosophy can reflect on the pandemic. This collection contains responses from moral and political philosophy, epistemology, and ontology, literary studies, theology, and psychoanalysis. It is a collevtive meditation that takes a plural approach to the sufferings of different parts of the world, deploying a stance dedicated to place and specificity. Their distinct contributions arise from multiple traditions, with voices from within and beyond the 'Western' canon. The eighteen mediations decline the temptation to isolate the pandemic as a simple great event, equal across the globe that it continues to devastate. Instead, like the witches of Macbeth, they come together as a gathering to speak of this state of evil, for it is our own condition. They explore the hesitating question, which yet confesses a terrifying suspicion: Is it possible to speak of evil in the time of the pandemic?--back cover "The authors of this insightful and urgent collection both use the metaphor of evil as a virus or contagion and conceptualize the COVID-19 virus as a manifestation of evil to reconsider the purpose of philosophy in and for a pandemic"-- Provided by publisher "The authors of this insightful and urgent collection both use the metaphor of evil as a virus or contagion and conceptualize the COVID-19 virus as a manifestation of evil to reconsider the purpose of philosophy in and for a pandemic"-- Site de l'éditeur