Man is a “cruel animal.” This radical thesis is the starting point of the discursive history of cruelty. Cultural scientist Wolfgang Müller-Funk defines cruelty as part of the civilizing process and offers his insight into this heartbreaking aspect of human evolution that eludes conventional descriptions. His twelve-chapter history covers Robert Musil and Ernst Jünger, Seneca and Friedrich Nietzsche, Elias Canetti and the Marquis de Sade, Jean Amery and Mario Llosa, Sigmund Freud and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Ismail Kadar and Arthur Koestler - Wolfgang Müller-Funk tells a cautionary tale of cruelty and offers a philosophical way to resist its temptations. The publishing layout of the book is saved in PDF A4 format. .