Radical Evil
Updated 2026-08-03
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A concept from Immanuel Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, describing a propensity rooted in free choice rather than in weakness or impulse. Radical evil reverses the moral order: the maxim of self-love is adopted as the supreme condition, and the moral law is subordinated to it. Kant held that this propensity is universal and that virtue consists in an ongoing struggle against it. Hannah Arendt later extended the discussion to systematized, depersonalized wrongdoing in bureaucratic settings, where responsibility is distributed until nobody feels it.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Corruption signal: watch for self-interest being openly reframed as worldly wisdom and rule-followers being mocked. - Structure audit: check whether wrongdoing has been divided so finely that no role feels responsible. - Repair judgment: distinguish corruption at the foundations, which requires rebuilding, from ordinary error, which can be corrected.
Anchor fast decisions
When self-love is elevated to a governing principle rather than a competing motive, the person no longer experiences wrongdoing as a lapse but as sensible conduct. Once that inversion is shared, organizations normalize it, and division of labor removes the moment where any single actor faces the whole consequence. The result is harm produced by ordinary people performing narrow tasks, which is why structural design matters more than individual intent.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_evilverified
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