SOC 3372: Explaining Evil: Why People Do Bad Things (2022-2023)

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This course focuses on how the social sciences allow us to better understand our dual natures as both created in God’s image and as fallen creatures. In other words, how do the social sciences allow us to better understand good and evil in the social world? Questions that will be addressed in this seminar include: What is human nature? Does egoism trump altruism? Are some people born bad? Are we all capable of extreme forms of evil? How sharp is the line between a hero and a villain? Are groups more evil than the individuals that compose them? These issues will be explored through reading scholarly research and applying that research to examples found in the real world.