Professor Publishes Chapter in Book on the Problem of Evil

University of Hawaiʻi-West Oʻahu
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Posted: Aug 9, 2001

David Alethea, professor of philosophy and Chair of the Humanities Division at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu, has published a chapter in the book "The Problem of Evil: An Intercultural Exploration."

His chapter is entitled "Reflections on the Effects of Exposure to Evil: A Transpersonal Perspective," and was developed from a paper delivered to the conference of the International Society for Philosophy and Psychotherapy in Montreal in 1996. It deals with the question of what makes the difference between exposure to evil and suffering that is simply debasing and that kind of exposure which can be elevating.

The chapter draws on insights from transpersonal psychology and consciousness studies to distinguish between that exposure to evil and suffering which is simply undergone and that which is confronted in consciousness.

Alethea holds a bachelor‘s degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin and a master‘s and Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. He has held a Fulbright fellowship to France and has been a National Endowment for the Humanities grantee.