Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
Evil needs to be acknowledged as an important aspect of human experience, rooted in our sense of threats and need for security from danger. Our intuitions about ‘evil’ human qualities (such as cruelty, deception, or megalomania) also often reflect aspects of absolutisation in human judgement. However, we also have a strong tendency to absolutise and project evil, to ‘demonise’ other people or things by treating them as wholly evil, when they are complex. To practise the Middle Way in relation to evil, we need to try to distinguish what is actually a threat to us from the things or people that we may unthinkingly label as ‘evil’.
This talk followed by discussion, recorded on Zoom on 22nd Nov 2020, is the second in a series of talks and discussions on the Middle Way applied to ethics. For more about the Middle Way Network please go to middlewaysociety.org/events/middle-way-network
Evil needs to be acknowledged as an important aspect of human experience, rooted in our sense of threats and need for security from danger. Our intuitions about ‘evil’ human qualities (such as cruelty, deception, or megalomania) also often reflect aspects of absolutisation in human judgement. However, we also have a strong tendency to absolutise and project evil, to ‘demonise’ other people or things by treating them as wholly evil, when they are complex. To practise the Middle Way in relation to evil, we need to try to distinguish what is actually a threat to us from the things or people that we may unthinkingly label as ‘evil’.
This talk followed by discussion, recorded on Zoom on 22nd Nov 2020, is the second in a series of talks and discussions on the Middle Way applied to ethics. For more about the Middle Way Network please go to middlewaysociety.org/events/middle-way-network
