We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
CHAPTER 3: On the Possibility of Diabolical Action.
- Authors
Barry, Peter Brian
- Abstract
While it is widely accepted that there is a difference between actions that are merely morally wrong and those that are evil, there is little agreement about just what makes actions not just wrong but evil. According to one dramatic conception of evil action, evil actions are diabolical--that is, they are actions performed 'for the sake of evil' or 'for evil itself'. I argue that while it is a mistake to identify evil actions with diabolical actions, diabolical actions are nonetheless possible. The primary obstacle to the possibility of diabolical actions is a popular thesis about the nature of agency and intentional action, a thesis that I call the 'Old Formula of the Schools' which implies that, necessarily, an agent can want something only if she thinks that it is good (in some aspect). I argue that we have good independent reason to think that the Old Formula of the Schools is false, largely because the Old Formula wrongly implies that agents cannot act on a familiar and arguably morally praiseworthy desire: the de dicto desire to do the right thing. But having rejected the Old Formula of the Schools, once we allow that agents can act on the basis of a de dicto desire to do the right thing we can infer that they can similarly act on the basis of a de dicto desire to do evil. But that means that diabolical action is possible.
- Subjects
POSSIBILITY; GOOD &; evil; DESIRE
- Publication
At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, 2019, Vol 124, p61
- ISSN
1570-7113
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/9789004398153_005