---
product_id: 11868990
title: "On Evil"
brand: "terry eagleton"
price: "HK$247"
currency: HKD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.hk/products/11868990-on-evil
store_origin: HK
region: Hong Kong
---

# On Evil

**Brand:** terry eagleton
**Price:** HK$247
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** On Evil by terry eagleton
- **How much does it cost?** HK$247 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hk](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/11868990-on-evil)

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## Description

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![On Evil - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31-o+lKdWdL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Eminently Readable
  

*by C***G on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 15, 2010*

In his book On Evil, Terry Eagleton offers his readers an eminently readable treatise that combines literary criticism and philosophy in a way that does justice to his complex and charged subject. In my view, Eagleton does what every scholar of literature should attempt to do: make his analysis accessible to a wide reading audience without sacrificing the intellectual rigor of his work. As usual, the book is written beautifully, and Eagleton's sense of humor is highly enjoyable. This is the kind of literary criticism that is accessible to any reasonably educated person, not just to academics.Eagleton begins On Evil by discussing how the concept of evil has been appropriated by a certain type of political discourse. The implication behind referring to terrorists as "evildoers" and their actions as "pure evil" is that if we accept that there is a rational  explanation for acts of terror, we somehow condone them. This, of course, is completely wrong since "rational" and "commendable" are not the same thing. The tendency to refer to terrorists as evil only serves the purpose of shutting down any kind of discussion of their actions. As a result, we are left with no understanding of what they do and what. Consequently, we cannot possibly hope to combat terror since we have precluded any opportunity to analyze terrorism in any meaningful way.Even though Eagleton ridicules the way certain politicians have appropriated the word "evil," he believes that evil actions and evil individuals do exist. In this, he disagrees not only with a certain brand of liberals but with many Marxists as well. (We have to remember that Eagleton himself is an unapologetic Marxist, which does not preclude him from pointing out the many subjects where he disagrees with his fellow Marxists. It is precisely this kind of intellectual honesty that makes me respect him so much). In Eagleton's view, the nature of evil is metaphysical, in the sense that it aims to destroy being as such, not just certain parts of it. It is the metaphysical nature of evil that Eagleton tries to analyze (and in my view, succeeds in doing so) in On Evil. The most intolerable thing for evil is that anything should exist. Its most important goal is the annihilation of being as such.In his 
  
Living in the End Times







  
  
    , Slavoj Zizek says that the question we need to ask ourselves is not "Is there life after death?" What we should ask instead is, rather, "Is there life before death?" Eagleton echoes this statement in On Evil. He mentions "the worthless purity of those who have never lived", which can lead people to desire to bring destruction to those who have the capacity to enjoy the richness of human existence. It is among those who have never actually allowed themselves to live, to enjoy, to love life that evil has its perfect breeding ground.Eagleton draws our attention to the paradoxical side of evil that was observed by Hannah Arendt in 
  
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics)







  
  
    . Truly evil acts are often perpetrated by "mild-mannered individuals who believe that business is business." Instead of being terrified by this phenomenon, we should see that it offers us hope. Most evil, says Eagleton, is institutional. If we change the entire structure of our society, the kind of evil that plagues our existence today will disappear.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
    Eagleton sobre el mal
  
  

*by S***C on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 8, 2011*

Eagleton es quizás uno de los mejores ensayistas contemporáneos en lengua inglesa. Sus libros suelen combinar el rigor, claridad y erudición propios del texto académico con la ligereza y humor característicos de textos más profanos. En el caso de este libro, Eagleton nos ofrece una suerte de diorama de uno de los problemas más antiguos de la historia: el problema de la existencia del mal. Para un marxista como Eagleton, el problema de la existencia del mal es particularmente relevante, dado que el materialismo histórico sobre el que se basa el dogma marxista presupone, de forma similar al cristianismo y otras religiones, que el sufrimiento y la miseria sean pre-condiciones para el logro de una vida mejor. Eagleton no niega las similaridades entre el dogma cristiano y el marxista, como lo demuestra el hecho de que lo que él pretende con este libro no es otra cosa que una teodicea. Como todo apologista cristiano antes que él, desde Agustín pasando por Aquino (quien tmabién escribiera un libro con título similar), Leibniz y más reciente Chesterton, sus argumentos están anclados en la certeza de una fe que presume incuestionable; aunque él va más allá que sus predecesores, sintetizando algunas de sus conclusiones y, ultimadamente, fusionándolas en una teología liberadora con profundas raíces neo-aristotélicas.

### ⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Save your money.
  

*by S***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2015*

I agree with other reviews. I thought I was in a Freshman English Lit. class instead of reading something cohesive and in depth about the subject of evil. The first 80+ pages reference so many books and characters that I thought I was reading Cliff Notes for an exam. There seems to be no clear idea or topic other than all of the books had "evil" characters in them. The last half of the book was better but some may see humor in Eagleton's rhetoric, I sensed  more derisive and bigoted opinion towards God, religion, and the Catholic Church (nothing new here from the Liberal left).I almost stopped reading it, but I always make it a point to finish what I started, something this book fails to do. His criticisms of 'classic' explanations about evil are shallow and more opinion than sound philosophical arguments. In the end he blames the US for Islamic terrorism? Of course to the left the US is evil (or perpetrates evil) hard to tell where he draws the difference and we get what we deserve (including 9-11). It is astounding that an educated man has such a wrong view of what Islam teaches, stands for, and is dedicated to making a reality. Whether through violence or social evolution, as can be seen in large areas in Europe, the goal has been clear since it's inception. One world religion as a social theocracy. His harangue against the US at the end is shameful but then again so is the fact that I actually paid for this book.

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*Store origin: HK*
*Last updated: 2026-03-17*