 As we have seen, the Prussian philosopher who coined the term “radical evil” 1400 years later did not think that it can involve choosing evil for its own sake. In fact, Kant argues that such a “diabolical” conception of evil is incoherent or at least psychologically inapplicable to human beings. Kant’s skepticism, however, did not prevent Dostoyevsky from composing Notes from the Underground (1864) as an extended and somewhat plausible portrait of one man’s effort to choose evil qua evil. And there are more recent accounts of people who confess—in private diaries or braggadocios depositions—that they did what they did because it was evil.