Arne Johan Vetlesen

Last updated

Arne Johan Vetlesen (born 10 September 1960) is a Norwegian professor of philosophy at the University of Oslo, who concentrates on the topic of ethics, environmental philosophy and social philosophy.

Contents

He took the cand.mag. (similar to BA) degree in sociology and anthropology, before studying at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main from 1985 to 1990 under the guidance of Jürgen Habermas. He took the dr.philos. degree at the University of Oslo in 1993. Before becoming a full professor at the University of Oslo in 1998, Vetlesen worked as a research fellow and associate professor. [1] He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. [2]

Vetlesen works interdisciplinary, often combining his philosophical theses with insights from psychology, sociology and anthropology. He is the author of more than twenty books on diverse topics such as environmental philosophy, moral philosophy, hermeneutics and psychoanalysis, social philosophy, consumerism and capitalism. His books in English include Cosmologies of the Anthropocene (2019), The Denial of Nature (2015), A Philosophy of Pain (2009), Evil and Human Agency (2005), Perception, Empathy, and Judgment (1994), and Closeness (1997).

Works

Evil and Human Agency is a 2005 book written by Arne Johan Vetlesen. Vetlesen combines philosophical, sociological, and psychological approaches in order to contend that evil is defined by its intentionality and harmfulness and to investigate why people commit acts of organized evil. He uses Hannah Arendt and Zygmunt Bauman as his main sources.

Summary

Vetlesen focuses on large-scale acts of evil such as the Holocaust and former Yugoslavia's “ethnic cleansing” in order to investigate how human agency allows an individual to cause harm to another intentionally and how personal intention turns into a collective evil. He argues that collective evil stems from a combination of “character, situation, and structure.” Vetlesen poses an important distinction between immorality and evil. While many acts may be considered immoral, only acts that harm another with intentionality are considered acts of evil. He aims to push away what he considers to be the current “shallow” understanding of evil that observes an immoral action's bad effects or consequences by instead focusing on what causes someone to deliberately inflict harm or pain. In the first three chapters, Vetlesen analyzes Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust, Hannah Arendt's ideas on “the banality of evil” and Adolf Eichmann, and C. Fred Alford's theories on the individual desire to commit evil. He focuses on theories of collective evil by detailing former Yugoslavia's “ethnic cleansing.” [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evil</span> Opposite or absence of good

Evil, or badness, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is generally seen as taking multiple possible forms, such as the form of personal moral evil commonly associated with the word, or impersonal natural evil, and in religious thought, the form of the demonic or supernatural/eternal. While some religions, world views, and philosophies focus on "good versus evil", others deny evil's existence and usefulness in describing people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Oslo</span> Norwegian public research university

The University of Oslo is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick University, the university was established in 1811 as the de facto Norwegian continuation of Denmark-Norway's common university, the University of Copenhagen, with which it shares many traditions. It was named for King Frederick VI of Denmark and Norway, and received its current name in 1939. The university was commonly nicknamed "The Royal Frederick's" before the name change, and informally also referred to simply as Universitetet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Arendt</span> German-American political theorist and philosopher (1906–1975)

Hannah Arendt was a German-born American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johan Galtung</span> Norwegian sociologist and peace scholar

Johan Vincent Galtung is a Norwegian sociologist who is the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He was the main founder of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in 1959 and served as its first director until 1970. He also established the Journal of Peace Research in 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zygmunt Bauman</span> Polish sociologist and philosopher (1925–2017)

Zygmunt Bauman was a Polish-born sociologist and philosopher. He was driven out of the Polish People's Republic during the 1968 Polish political crisis and forced to give up his Polish citizenship. He emigrated to Israel; three years later he moved to the United Kingdom. He resided in England from 1971, where he studied at the London School of Economics and became Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds, later Emeritus. Bauman was a social theorist, writing on issues as diverse as modernity and the Holocaust, postmodern consumerism and liquid modernity.

In sociology, the term rationalization was coined by Max Weber, a German sociologist, jurist, and economist. Rationalization is the replacement of traditions, values, and emotions as motivators for behaviour in society with concepts based on rationality and reason. The term rational is seen in the context of people, their expressions, and or their actions. This term can be applied to people who can perform speech or in general any action, in addition to the views of rationality within people it can be seen in the perspective of something such as a worldview or perspective (idea). An example of rationalization can be seen in the implementation of bureaucracies in government is a kind of rationalization, as is the construction of high-efficiency living spaces in architecture and urban planning. A potential reason as to why rationalization of a culture may take place in the modern era is the process of globalization. Countries are becoming increasingly interlinked, and with the rise of technology, it is easier for countries to influence each other through social networking, the media and politics. An example of rationalization in place would be the case of witch doctors in certain parts of Africa. Whilst many locals view them as an important part of their culture and traditions, development initiatives and aid workers have tried to rationalize the practice in order to educate the local people in modern medicine and practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Eichmanns</span> Allusion to people whose individual actions contribute to destructive immoral systems

"Little Eichmanns" is a term used to describe people whose actions, while on an individual scale may seem relatively harmless even to themselves, taken collectively create destructive and immoral systems in which they are actually complicit. The name comes from Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi bureaucrat who helped to orchestrate the Holocaust, but claimed that he did so without feeling anything about his actions, merely following the orders given to him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Hylland Eriksen</span> Norwegian anthropologist

Thomas Hylland Eriksen is a Norwegian anthropologist. He is currently a professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo, as well as the 2015–2016 president of the European Association of Social Anthropologists. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Johan Vilhelm Aubert was an influential Norwegian sociologist. He was a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo from 1963 to 1971 and at the Department of Sociology from 1971 to 1988. He co-founded the Norwegian Institute for Social Research already in 1950, and has been labelled the "father of Norwegian sociology". In his early life he was a member of the anti-Nazi resistance group XU, and while later involved on the radical wing of the Labour Party, he edited the newspaper Orientering.

Adriana Cavarero is an Italian philosopher and feminist thinker. She holds the title of Professor of Political Philosophy at the Università degli studi di Verona. She has also held visiting appointments at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara, at the New York University and Harvard. Cavarero is widely recognized in Italy, Europe and the English-speaking world for her writings on feminism and theories of sexual difference, on Plato, on Hannah Arendt, on theories of narration and on a wide range of issues in political philosophy and literature.

The Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies is a research centre in Oslo, Norway, and Norway's national research institution in violence and sexual abuse; disaster management, terrorism, armed conflicts and traumatic stress; and forced migration and refugee health research. It is interdisciplinary and employs experts mainly in psychology, psychiatry, and the social sciences. In addition to carrying out research and related activities, the institute advises the Government of Norway in its areas of expertise and has some official emergency management functions at the national level. NKVTS has 101 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arne Næss</span> Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer (1912–2009)

Arne Dekke Eide Næss was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term "deep ecology", an important intellectual and inspirational figure within the environmental movement of the late twentieth century, and a prolific writer on many other philosophical issues. Næss cited Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring as being a key influence in his vision of deep ecology. Næss combined his ecological vision with Gandhian nonviolence and on several occasions participated in direct action.

Events in the year 1948 in Norway.

Alette Schreiner, née Falch was a Norwegian researcher.

Arne-Johan Henrichsen was a Norwegian philologist.

Robert Fine was a British sociologist. He was a leading European scholar on the history of social and political thought, cosmopolitan social theory, the social theory of Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt, the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism, crimes against humanity and human rights. He was a Professor Emeritus at Warwick University. He died on 9 June 2018.

Hans Petter Graver is a Norwegian legal scholar. He serves as professor and was the dean at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo between 2008 and 2015. He was replaced by Dag Michalsen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thorolf Vogt</span>

Thorolf Vogt was a Norwegian geologist, professor and Arctic explorer.

Moral blindness, also known as ethical blindness, is defined as a person's temporary inability to see the ethical aspect of a decision they are making. It is often caused by external factors due to which an individual is unable to see the immoral aspect of their behavior in that particular situation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Luise Kirkengen</span> Norwegian physician and professor

Anna Luise Kirkengen is a Norwegian physician and researcher. She is a professor of public health at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Born and trained in Germany, she has been a general practitioner in Oslo for over 30 years, being the only female GP in her district. Her PhD thesis studied health problems in adulthood associated with childhood sexual abuse which she has authored into a book entitled Inscribed Bodies: Health Impact of Child Sexual Abuse.

References

  1. Knut Olav Åmås, ed. (2008). Hvem er hvem?. Oslo: Aschehoug. pp. 622–623. ISBN   978-82-03-23561-0.
  2. "Gruppe 3: Idéfag" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
  3. Vetlesen, Arne Johan (2005). Evil and Human Agency. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. Introduction and Table of Contents.