Dalrymple and the Limits of Reductionism: Evil, Guilt, and Aesthetics

This essay examines the work of Theodore Dalrymple, a psychiatrist and philosopher who, in his work with criminals, confronts the reductionist paradigm. The text explores the tension between the classical understanding of evil and the contemporary tendency to attribute it to biological factors or trauma. The author exposes the pitfalls of genetic determinism, which removes moral responsibility from the individual, and criticizes the industrialization of ugliness in modern culture. Through the lens of prison psychiatry and objective aesthetics, the article reveals the dangers of colonizing the lived world by science, which rejects free will. It is a profound reflection on the nature of guilt, eugenics, and the need to restore an ethical dimension to human actions in a world dominated by technological social control.