In particular, this means that we should not be too swiftly deflected into pursuing the causes of evil external to the self; causes easily become alibis. Of course, it would be improper to envisage wickedness as simply the misdirection of the individual’s will, and to lift that will out of a nexus of causal relationships. But we need to recognize that, in looking at those factors external to the will, we may easily place ourselves ‘at a distance from which individual behaviour is simply invisible’.