Evil Examined
ATTEMPTS BY THINKERS TO COME TO TERMS WITH THE REALITY OF  EVIL

MARTIN BUBER

Evil is "lack of direction."
--Martin Buber

Jewish theologian Martin Buber considered the nature of evil in his classic work, Good and Evil.  Buber argued that evil is not, as it is commonly understood, the opposite of good: "It is usual to think of good and evil as two poles, two opposite directions, the antithesis of one another...We must begin by doing away with this convention."  Buber argued that whereas good comes from a dedication to walking the moral path, one falls into evil through an absence of attention.  One must work to be good, but one happens to be evil.