‘EVIL’ IN THE SLEEP OF REASON

Öz This paper aims to analyze English physical chemist and novelist C. P. Snow’s novel entitled The Sleep of Reason (1968) according to Terry Eagleton’s perspective of evil with reference to his book entitled On Evil (2010), and also aims to discuss to what extent his views on evil shed light upon the novel. Eagleton’s unconventional attitude towards evil can be easily recognized when he focuses on a rare category of evil, that is, ‘without an apparent’ reason, in his mentioned book. This type of evil is observed with the murder of an eight year-old boy after being tortured by two women named Cora and Kitty during a weekend, which happens without an apparent reason. In order to explain this type of evil, Eagleton relates the concept of motiveless evil with the death drive, freedom, free will, responsibility, destructiveness, and the influence of external factors on human beings, which are of great importance in the sense that the two women are sane and have free will; thereupon, they should assume the responsibility for what they have done. In short, Eagleton’s views on evil will be used as the critical tools in the analysis of The Sleep of Reason in this paper.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Evil, the death drive, freedom, free will, motiveslessness and the murder.

PDF

___

Bales, K. (2004). Slavery and the Human Right to Evil. Journal of Human Rights, 3(1), 53-63.

Bernstein, R. J. (2010). Radikal Kötülük, Bir Felsefi Sorgulama. Trans.: Nil Erdoğan- Filiz Deniztekin. İstanbul: Varlık Yayınları.

Burris , C. T. and Rempel, J. K. (2011). Just Look at Him: Punitive Responses Cued by ‘Evil’. Symbols, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 33(1), 69-80.

Card, C. (2002). The Atrocity Paradigm: The Theory of Evil. New York: Oxford University Press. Corlett, A. J. (2004). Evil.Analysis, 64(1), 81-84.

Coyle, S. M. (2011). Responses of Narrative Practice to the Effects of Evil. Harold Ellens, J. H. (Ed.). Explaining Evil 3, Approaches, Responses, Solutions. NY: ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Duncan, S. (2012). Moral Evil, Freedom and the Goodness of God: Why Kant Abandoned Theodicy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 20(5), 973- 991.

Eagleton, T. (2010). On Evil. London: Yale University Press.

Eppens, A. J. (2011). Evil in the Time of Thomas Aquinas. Harold Ellens, J. H. (Ed.). Explaining Evil 2, History, Global Views, and Events. NY: ABC-CLIO, LLC, USA.

Fisher, R. N. (2003). The Catheter of Bilious Hatred. Breen, M. S. (Ed.).

Understanding Evil: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Netherlands: Rodopi.

Forsyth, N. (2000). Paradise Lost and The Origin of ‘Evil’: Classical or Judeo- Christian?.International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 6(4), 516-548.

Franken, L. (2012). Evil, Morality and Modernity. (Master Dissertation), Philosophy Department. Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Heidegger, M. (1985). Schelling’s Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom. (1809). Trans.: Joan Stambaugh. Ohio: Ohio University Press.

Hood Jr., R. W. (2011). The Psychology of Evil. Harold Ellens, H. (Ed.). Explaining Evil 1, Definitions and Developments. NY:ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Kane, R. (2000). Free Will and Responsibility: Ancient Dispute, New Themes. The Journal of Ethics, 4 (4), 315-322.

Lara, M. P. (2007). Narrating Evil, A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgement. New York: Columbia University Press.

Latzer, M. (1994). Leibniz’s Conception of Metaphysical Evil. Journal of the History of Ideas, 55(1), 1-15.

Louden, R. B. (2010). Evil Everywhere: The Ordinariness of Kantian Radical Evil.

Anderson-Gold, S. and Muchnik, P. (Ed.). Kant’s Anatomy of Evil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mawson, T. J. (2004). The Possibility of a Free-Will Defense for the Problem of Natural Evil. Religious Studies, 40(1), 23-42.

McGinn, C. (1997). Ethics, Evil and Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press.

Midgley, M. (1984). Wickedness: A Philosophical Essay. Boston: Routledge&Kegan.

Molly, M. B. (2009). The Geography of Good and Evil: Philosophical Investigations. Trans. Ineke Hardy. Price, J. (Ed.). Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books.

Morton, A. (2004). On Evil. New York: Routledge.

Muchnik, P. (Ed.). Kant’s Anatomy of Evil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Neiman, S. (2002). Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy. New Jersey:Princeton University Press.

Neitzsche, F. (2006). On The Genealogy of Morality. (1887). Trans.: Carol Diethe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Online Oxford Dictionary, Date of Access: 24. 12. 20013. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/evil?q=evil. Plantinga, A. (1974). God, Freedom and Evil. Michigan: Harper&Row.

Robbins, S. (2004). Metaphysical Evil. Keen, D.E and Keen, P. R. (Ed.). Considering Evil and Human Wickedness. Oxford: Inter-disciplinary Press.

Russell, J. B. (1999). Şeytan,Antikiteden İlkel Hristiyanlığa Kötülük. (Trans.: Nuri Plümer). İstanbul: Kabalcı Yayınevi.

Singer, M. G. (2004). The Concept of Evil. Royal Institute of Philosophy, 79(308), 2004, 185-214.

Snow, C. P. (1968). The Sleep of Reason. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Staub, E. (2004). The Roots of Evil: Personality, Social Conditions, Culture and Basic Human Needs. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 179-192.

Stein, R. (2002). Evil as Love and as Liberation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues: The International Journal of Relational Perspectives, 12 (3), 393-420.

Tanner, J. S. (1988). Say First What Cause: Ricoeur and the Etiology of Evil in Paradise Lost. PMLA, 103(1), 45-56.

Wood, A. W. (2010). Kant and the Intelligibility of Evil. Anderson-Gold, S. and