The Invention of Good and Evil
The Invention of Good and Evil by Hanno Sauer is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 1 of the year's most respected lists, including The Economist, for a Consensus Score of 15 out of 100.
Appears on these lists
Our take
AI-draftedSauer, a moral philosopher, attempts something genuinely ambitious: a naturalistic account of morality as it evolved from prehistoric cooperation problems into the norms we treat as self-evident today, drawing on evolutionary biology and anthropology rather than treating ethics as revealed truth. Reviewers have split sharply on whether he pulls it off, some find the synthesis erudite and even-handed, while others argue that what he's actually describing is the history of social norms, not of good and evil as such, and that the book's title promises more philosophical weight than the argument delivers.
How the Consensus Score is calculated
Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.
| Source | Authority | Recency | Award | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Economist | 0.95 | 0.70 | 1.00× | 0.67 |
| Weighted sum → Score | 0.67 → 15 | |||
Similar consensus books
Because they appear on some of the same lists.
Frequently asked
What lists is The Invention of Good and Evil on?
The Invention of Good and Evil appears on 1 list in our 2026 corpus, including The Economist.
What is its Consensus Score?
The Invention of Good and Evil has a Consensus Score of 15 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.