Thou Shalt not Kill

Adriana Cavarero is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Verona. Her most recent book is Inclinations: A Critique of Rectitude.

• Translator's Note Part I: The Irrepressible Face of the Other Angelo Scola Point of Departure Commandments and Covenant Christianity and Rational, Universal Morals You Shall Not Kill Responsibilities and Challenges: Burning Issues Part II: The Archaeology of Homicide Adriana Cavarero A Special Law Brief Philological Note Crime and Punishment When Killing Is Lawful and Just To Cut Life Short A Weak Commandment In the Beginning Homo Necans You Shall Never Kill The Sex of Cain Notes Index

"Thou Shalt Not Kill represents an exceptionally original contribution to the study of contemporary Western culture seen from both a religious and a secular feminist perspective." -- -Alessia Ricciardi Northwestern University "The remarkable dialogue Scola and Cavarero between demonstrates the ethical, theological, and the political stakes of the prohibition of killing. Interpreting the prohibition of murder in the context of Levinas's ethics, Scola proposes what Cavarero calls an 'absolutist' interpretation of such prohibition and argues for its applicability both to suicide and to reproduction. By contrast, Cavarero brilliantly demonstrates the incoherence of such an interpretation, particularly in the context of new reproductive technologies, medical technologies, and modern warfare. Instead of ethical relationality, such an absolute application of the prohibition of killing, all too often coexisting with the justifications of just or preemptive war, leads to the valorization of impersonal biologism. This is an indispensable book for anyone interested in the contemporary debates about ethics, biopolitics, and bioethics." -- -Ewa Plonowska Ziarek author of Feminist Aesthetics and the Politics of Modernism