Hannah Arendt is a German Jewish philosopher, born in 1906 and died in 1975. She studied philosophy with Martin Heidegger as Professor. Her works deal with the nature of power and political subjects such as democracy, authority, and totalitarianism. She flew away to France in 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in Germany. She flew away from Europe to the United States after escaping from the concentration camp of Gurs. She became a Professor in New York city, in which she became an active member of the German Jewish community. In 1963, she was sent to Jerusalem to report on Eichmann’s trial by The New Yorker. Hannah Arendt’s thoughts on Eichmann’s trial were expected to be harsh, considering the philosopher’s roots. However, her first report from Jerusalem shocked everyone. Far from defending Eichmann, Hannah Arendt tried to question why would such an ordinary man, as she depicted him, commit such atrocities. Hannah Arendt’s reports on Eichmann trial led in 1963 to the publication of one of the philosopher’s most discussed, debated work, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. During Eichmann’s trial, the philosopher was not only reporting but also questioning the origins of evil, thus digging herself into the field of metaphysics. Hannah Arendt elaborates on what she would come to call the banality of evil. She does not consider the banality of evil as a theory nor a doctrine, she simply uses it as a notion to explain “the phenomenon of evil deeds, committed on a gigantic scale, which could not be traced to any particularity of wickedness, pathology or ideological conviction in the doer, whose only personal distinction was a perhaps extraordinary shallowness” (Arendt).
The first depiction of Eichmann by ...
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...r dehumanizing individuals and turning them away from their ability to tell right from wrong, as the one reliable explanation of the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Now accepted as a sound concept, the banality of evil is often questioned when our world witnesses new forms of evil, such as terrorism.
Works Cited
Arendt, Hannah, and Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report of the Banality of Evil. London: Faber & Faber, 1963. Print.
Arendt, Hannah. "Thinking and moral considerations: A lecture." Social Research (1984): 7-37.
Miller, Stephen. "A Note on the Banality of Evil." Wilson Quarterly 22 (1998): 54-59.
Myers, William Andrew. "The Banality of Evil in an Age of Terrorism." Considering Evil and Human Wickedness (2004): 33.
Judt, Tony. "The ‘problem of evil in postwar Europe." The New York Review of Books 14.2 (2008): 33-5.
1. In her book “Total Domination”, Hannah Arendt strongly believed that Totalitarianism is trying to achieve the idea of Total domination. She studied and analyzed how totalitarianism had always falls into the idea of total domination in which she explained how total domination works in her point of view and her own description of Totalitarian. Her purpose is to show how the leaders treated humans lesser than animals in a way of how they torture people with their cruelty. She seems to have a great ideas of her comparison that gives justice to really make me believe that totalitarian has the same idea of total dominion.
Goldhagen's book however, has the merit of opening up a new perspective on ways of viewing the Holocaust, and it is the first to raise crucial questions about the extent to which eliminationist anti-Semitism was present among the German population as a whole. Using extensive testimonies from the perpetrators themselves, it offers a chilling insight into the mental and cognitive structures of hundreds of Germans directly involved in the killing operations. Anti-Semitism plays a primary factor in the argument from Goldhagen, as it is within his belief that anti-Semitism "more or less governed the ideational life of civil society" in pre-Nazi Germany . Goldhagen stated that a
The Holocaust was one of the greatest tragedies the world has ever known. There were many key people who participated in this outrageous genocide however some get more attention then others. Adolf Eichmann is a classic example. Eichmann was a self-proclaimed “Jewish Specialist” and head of the Gestapo Department. Eichmann was responsible for keeping every train rolling right into the stations of the concentration and death camps during the holocaust. Now we will take a look into Eichmann’s childhood, life experiences, and his later actions to see what shaped into a man of hatred towards the Jewish race.
Hannah Arendt discovered a concept known as “The banality of Evil” during the time of the Holocaust, she wanted to understand the nature of evil and explain how it can be different from the concept of radical evil. Her theory arose from the actions led by a man whose job was to organize the transportation of Jews to concentration camps in various cities. Adolf Eichman was a typical Bureaucrat. Arendt described him as an average joe whose sole purpose was to be successful and follow the orders lead by his superior, Hitler. The orders led by Hitler are portrayed as motives led by absolute evil or “radical evil”. Arendt noted in her philosophy paper that there is a significant difference of character in Hitler and Eichman such that Hitler was
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books, 2006. Internet resource.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a Mass of people is a large body of persons in a group. In Chapter 10 of Hannah Arendt’s novel, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt broadly defines the term masses, as well as the mass individual. Before doing this, Arendt clearly distinguishes masses from classes and citizens. As Arendt notes, classes and citizens are part of a nation-state, which essentially represent themselves. Arendt claims that Totalitarianism movements are mass organizations of atomized isolated individuals. In this claim, there are many key features that define Totalitarianism as a political system.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil is a book about the Eichmann trials, written in Hannah Arendt's perspective. Hannah Arendt was a German-American political theorist, who was often labeled as a philosopher. During the trials she offered herself as a reporter for The New Yorker magazine. Arendt was a Jew, and an early refugee from Germany, making her uniquely qualified to cover the trial, but conversely created controversy among the Jewish community. Arendt received static from the public because she was a Jew defending the morals of a Nazi. Throughout the trial, Arendt composed her impressions of Eichmann and articulated her opinion of the defendant. Throughout the Report on the Banality of Evil, Arendt explores the allegations from a legal and moral perspective, claiming that Eichmann is not a monster or the radical evil, but rather, the "banal evil." Although Eichmann's actions were legally wrong, Arendt saw a moral indifference. She believed that the Eichmann's case posed a moral question, and the answer to it may not have been legally relevant
The vast literature on Nazism and the Holocaust treats in great depth the first three elements, the focus of this book, is t...
The problem of evil is inescapable in this fallen world. From worldwide terror like the Holocaust to individual evils like abuse, evil touches every life. However, evil is not a creation of God, nor was it in His perfect will. As Aleksandr
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin, 2006.
The tragedies of the holocaust forever altered history. One of the most detailed accounts of the horrific events from the Nazi regime comes from Elie Wiesel’s Night. He describes his traumatic experiences in German concentration camps, mainly Buchenwald, and engages his readers from a victim’s point of view. He bravely shares the grotesque visions that are permanently ingrained in his mind. His autobiography gives readers vivid, unforgettable, and shocking images of the past. It is beneficial that Wiesel published this, if he had not the world might not have known the extent of the Nazis reign. He exposes the cruelty of man, and the misuse of power. Through a lifetime of tragedy, Elie Wiesel struggled internally to resurrect his religious beliefs as well as his hatred for the human race. He shares these emotions to the world through Night.
The capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann, which evoked legal and moral controversy across all nations, ended in his hanging over four decades ago. The verdict dealing with Eichmann's involvement with the Final Solution has never been in question; this aspect was an open-and-shut case which was put to death with Eichmann in 1962. The deliberation surrounding the issues of Eichmann's motives, however, are still in question, bringing forth in-depth analyses of the aspects of evil.
To many in the United States and Europe, World War II is an icon that represents unimaginable turmoil and tragedy. The hardships brought about by World War II raises the theodicy question of how a righteous God could allow the Nazi’s to reign. Elie Wiesel was one of the many Jews who were persecuted during this period of history. When he was fifteen years of age, Wiesel was a prisoner in the infamous Aushwitz concentration camp (Brown vii). In an introduction to the trial of god, writer Robert Brown takes note of what Wiesel witnessed.
Harry Friedlander, “The Opening Act of Nazi Germany” Ed. By Donald Niewyk, The Holocaust: Problems in European Civilization (Boston, Massachusetts:Wadsworth, 2011), 45.
Hannah Arendt’s book, The Human Condition, examines the “vita activa” and it’s relation to three fundamental human activities: labor, work and action. Arendt holds that these three activities “correspond to one of the basic conditions under which life on earth has been given to man” and make up politics (7). Throughout the book Arendt ultimately makes the point that our main political job is to discover other people’s opinions about political life and to then go forward and examine these opinions together. Differing viewpoints and opinions are inevitable and through politics we examine these opinions and should be able to find agreements within the discrepancies. In Arendt’s opinion examining opinions together is doing politics. In Arendt’s version of democracy people must find common ground about disagreements, not merely find any agreement to settle upon.