Mario Alfredo Hernández A new approach on the long-standing problem of evil María Pía Lara, Narrating Evil: A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 230 pp. Abstract In recent years, discussion on evil as a philosophical problem has increased. However, there is a tendency to see this problem from an aesthetic point of view, to frame it in theodicy’s plot, or even to suggest silence in front of those extreme forms of evil that are linked to specific episodes, such as totalitarianism or ethnic cleansing. This review article focuses on María Pía Lara’s development of a postmetaphysical theory of evil in her book Narrating Evil. The main purpose of Lara’s theoretical effort is to show that critical recovery of historical episodes that have become paradigms of evil for us, has a narrative texture and intends to generate a discussion in the present time about the ways we can give reality to an idea of democratic justice, in the context of what Jürgen Habermas has called secular and postmetaphysical societies. Thus, learning from cata- strophes – the term coined by Habermas and redefined by Lara – becomes a tool for mastering the past, but also constitutes a narrative device that allows us a critical approach to our present political reality. Key words evil · learning from catastrophes · public sphere · reflective judgment · story When Ariel Dorfman was questioned about why he had accepted, among the various offers he received since his play became an international success in 1992, the one from Roman Polanski to make the film adap- tation of Death and the Maiden, he said the Polish filmmaker had two characteristics that were close to his intentions in narrating the encounter between a victim of political persecution and his or her possible torturer, PSC PHILOSOPHY & SOCIAL CRITICISM • vol 35 no 3 • pp. 357–362 Copyright © 2009 SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) and David Rasmussen www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/0191453708100235 06 Hernández 100235 16/12/08 11:11 am Page 357