Evil After the Holocaust

Abstract

After the Holocaust, we have a new appreciation of the concept of radical evil. Radical evil is evil that is not defined in comparison to the good; it is evil even when there is no good. Crimes against humanity, or crimes that challenge the concept of humanity, are challenges to the whole code, not infractions of some rule. Because radical evil transcends the law, the commission of radical evil is inexpiable. Since such a crime has a conceptual basis, instigators are as guilty if not guiltier than perpetrators. The Holocaust, by linking radical evil to mass extermination, marks a new phase in our historical experience. The contrast between good and evil is replaced by the contrast between good and neutral. Since radical evil reconfigures the good as the neutral, and then also reconfigures the evil as neutral, neutrality in the face of radical evil is no longer an option.