He who throws the first stone

Betrayal, deception and intrigue: whoever has suffered the worst forms of human malice is often only left one path with which to liberate himself: damning his opponent. World literature has many examples of damnations – in the Bible, on the stage, in fairy tales and legends. Michael Köhlmeier has dozens of his own cases, which are accompanied here by Konrad Paul Liessmann’s philosophical commentaries. Stories such as those of Agamemnon and Achilles, Jesus and the Adulteress, and Othello and Desdemona deal with dramatic human crises and provide philosophical illustrations to explain why one person would want to destroy another. A great narrator together with a great philosophical teacher explore the darkest sides of our existence: a brilliant dialogue against a wide backdrop of ideas.