From Library Journal
This book is a philosophical discussion of the ethics of good and evil. In the first part the good is defined as "the working out of one's own life story" and evil as "the deliberate thwarting of that work, whether in oneself or in another." Part 2 makes use of a "pure type"a hypothetical agent whose conscious aim is to commit evil actsto explore the consequences of the deliberate choosing of evil by individuals in social and institutional settings. Part 3 consists of a brilliant and insightful moral discussion of the Holocaust, in which Rosenthal cites the atrocities committed by the Nazis as the most extreme example of evil committed by individuals and carried out under the sanction of an entire culture or government. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of the Holocaust as well as ethical philosophy. Raymond Frey, Drew Univ. Lib., Madison, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
