Author of Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education
(1984), Noddings (Education/Stanford) offers here a provocative
definition of evil from women's perspective, contrasts it with our
society's traditional male-oriented view, and points out ways in
which an acceptance of the presence of evil in all of us could help
correct some pervasive injustices. Noddings claims that Western
civilization's separation of good and evil into two entities (God
and Satan), the result of men's need to explain the presence of
evil in the face of an all-powerful, loving Father, marked the
beginning of an erroneous and inevitably destructive life-view in
our culture. Denial of the presence of evil in God led to parallel
separations of pure, "spiritual" man from wicked, "natural" woman,
"good" societal classes from "evil" ones, and "virtuous" nations
from "corrupt" ones. These false concepts are still with us today -
e.g., Reagan's "Evil Empire." Noddings maintains that women - with
their particularized, sustenance-centered experience as mothers -
tend to see evil and good as inextricably intertwined, and would
define evil simply as anything that causes an individual pain,
helplessness, and/or a sense of separation. Since the historical
emphasis on submission to a "good" authority in order to defeat an
"evil" enemy has so often led to war and oppression (and thus to
pain, helplessness, and separation), Noddings recommends the
addition of a more holistic, female perspective when considering
societal aims. Her promised future work on specific changes that
could introduce a more androgynous view of good and evil into our
educational system will be welcome. Thought provoking as this work
is, its dry, academic style may well prevent it from attracting the
wide readership it deserves. (Kirkus Reviews)
Human beings love to fictionalize evil - to terrorize each other
with stories of defilement, horror, excruciating pain, and divine
retribution. Beneath the surface of bewitchment and half-sick
amusement, however, lies the realization that evil is real and that
people must find a way to face and overcome it. What we require,
Carl Jung suggested, is a morality of evil - a carefully thought
out plan by which to manage the evil in ourselves, in others, and
in whatever deities we posit. This book is not written from a
Jungian perspective, but it is nonetheless an attempt to describe a
morality of evil. One suspects that descriptions of evil and the so
- called problem of evil have been thoroughly suffused with male
interests and conditioned by masculine experience. This result
could hardly have been avoided in a sexist culture, and recognizing
the truth of such a claim does not commit us to condemn every male
philosopher and theologian who has written on the problem. It
suggests, rather, that we may get a clearer view of evil if we take
a different standpoint. The standpoint I take here will be that of
women; that is, I will attempt to describe evil from the
perspective of women's experience.
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