The sacred monstrous : a reflection on violence in human communities / Wendy C. Hamblet.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Wedding an analysis of relevant anthropological literature and philosophical theory, this important book re-positions violence--long trivialized by philosophers as an incidental or anomalous feature of humanity--as a central concern for ethical thought. Wendy Hamblet focuses on a fundamental paradox that emerges when well-meaning communities and individuals attempt to implement their ideals in our social, or socialized, world. Very often the unintended consequences of these individual or communal ideals run headlong into the brute fact of bloody human engagement. Through her investigation of violence-legitimization in myth and ancient tales, philosophical accounts (from Plato to Nietzsche), the concept of home as 'refuge,' and recent social scientific data, Hamblet takes up the charge that violence is steeped in our being--it pervades human history and is embedded in the ethos of our modern institutions--and gives us essential tools for better understanding how violence actually operates.

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CHOICE Review

Hamblet (philosophy, Adelphi Univ.) has written a needed discourse on violence, not to applaud or dismiss it, but rather to understand it philosophically. To achieve this, and to promote more realistic ethics, she draws selectively from anthropology, psychiatry, and classical philosophical sources (like Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, and Levinas) to advance her interesting claim that violence and suffering are basic to human engagement per se. Facile, moralistic responses to violence are untenable, she claims, once violence is acknowledged as intrinsic to humanity, with each person being "both victim and abuser." Further, Hamblet asserts that a gap exists between people's good intentions and their bloody deeds. "Monstrousness" is then an ingredient in "civilizing" forces and remains a basic part of people's "sacred" home spaces. Accordingly a strategy of home craft, necessary to negotiate successfully between the alien, chaotic external world and the welcoming, safe refuge of the home space, must include a philosophical account of the process of identity formation. Finally, Hamblet rejects as dangerous ideals of self-realization the common principles of freedom, independence, and autonomy. Instead, she upholds an ethics of gentler ideals more suited to the healing of a world wounded by tyranny, genocide, terrorism, and other forms of violence. Selected bibliography and good index. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All levels. A. S. Rosenbaum Cleveland State University