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Description
Despite everything we’ve learned, people still commit genocide and other atrocities. One can’t help but ask how a real person could actually contribute to such inhumanity, but the reasons we get are usually abstract and unsatisfying. They rely on non-answers like, “people hate” or “people ‘other’?” or “people have no choice.” These don’t feel like answers at all. On this episode, we consider a deeper and more convincing explanation.
Elizabeth Minnich is a Distinguished Fellow at the Association of American Colleges & Universities. She taught moral philosophy and applied ethics at Queens University and is a widely published author including the book The Evil of Banality: On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking. She has dedicated her career to transformational development in education and democratic practices.
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Publication Date
11-9-2025
Publisher
Institute for Philosophy in Public Life
City
Grand Forks, ND
Disciplines
Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Weinstein, Jack Russell and Minnich, Elizabeth, "How is it That Ordinary People can Commit Such Overwhelming Evil?" (2025). Why? Radio Podcast Archive. 192.
https://commons.und.edu/why-radio-archive/192