The Geography of Good and Evil: Philosophical Investigations (Crosscurrents)

Contrary to the fashionable view in the Western world, good and evil are objective aspects of the world, contends the Dutch philosopher Andreas Kinneging in this latest entry in ISI's "Crosscurrents" series. Good and evil are not figments of the mind or the subjective creations of men; they are inherent in creation. They are not to be invented, but discovered. Thus, just as a geographer maps the physical globe, the geographer of good and evil must map the universe of good and evil. This, of course, is precisely what the tradition of classical and medieval natural law maintains. Kinneging contributes to that tradition by reformulating and defending its central insights in a way today's readers will understand - and find persuasive. Kinneging lays out the metaphysical and epistemological foundations of virtue and vice and discusses the merits of alternative moral notions, such as 'duties' and 'rights'. He contrasts the traditional, natural law view of the family with the modern view. And in a long chapter on conservatism he establishes that true conservatism consists in a defense of the classical and medieval natural law tradition against newfangled views derived from the Enlightenment and Romanticism. "The Geography of Good and Evil" establishes Andreas Kinneging as one of contemporary Europe's wisest and most insightful moral philosophers.