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Summary of hannah arendt the human condition
Summary of hannah arendt the human condition
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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.
Throughout the Holocaust, the Jews were continuously dehumanized by the Nazis. However, these actions may not have only impacted the Jews, but they may have had the unintended effect of dehumanizing the Nazis as well. What does this say about humanity? Elie Wiesel and Art Spiegelman both acknowledge this commentary in their books, Night and Maus. The authors demonstrate that true dehumanization reveals that the nature of humanity is not quite as structured as one might think.
An Analysis of Peter van Inwagen’s The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: a Theodicy
Claudia Card begins by questioning the difference between wrong and evil. How do we know when something crosses the line between being just wrong, to being an evil act? How does hatred and motive play a part in this? How can people psychologically maintain a sense of who they are when they have been the victims of evil? Card attempts to explain these fundamental questions using her theory of evil; the Atrocity Paradigm (Card, pg.3).
" Metaphors of Evil: Contemporary German Literature and the Shadow of Nazism. Hamida Bosmajian. University of Iowa Press, 1979. 27-54.
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
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.
Upon reading Claudia Card’s “Evils” she deepens her understanding of evil post 9/11. Card goes on to write that her adjustments to the accounts of evil include first that evils are inexcusable and not just culpable, she also states that evils need not be extraordinary and that all institutional evil implies individual reason to blame. Claudia Card continues to define evil as reasonably foreseeable intolerable harms produced, maintained, supported and tolerated by culpable wrongdoings. Evils have two parts, harm and agency. How Card identifies the difference between evil and lesser wrongs is the harm component. Also she has named her theory the atrocity theory because atrocities are her paradigms of evil. But natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes can be disastrous they are not considered atrocities because they are not produced, aggravated by culpable wrongs. They are also not foreseeable. Some examples of evil include genocide or premeditated murder.
Gesink, Indira. "Fascism, Nazism and Road to WWII." World Civilizations II. Baldwin Wallace University. Marting Hall, Berea. 3 April 2014. Class lecture.
Campbell, John, ed. The Experience of World War II. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.
According to an ends-based rationality, the Holocaust was an extremely irrational event that is connected to the unrealistic goal of exterminating all Jews. Conversely, Weber’s means-based rationality suggests that the Holocaust was rational because the Nazis ran their camps optimally. This particular concept is extremely problematic in that it justifies the mass genocide on the basis of the camp’s functionality in economic terms. Although very different, the two types of rationality explain how organizations such as the Nazi Party and the bureaucracy can create lasting
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.
Norton, James. The Holocaust: Jews, Germany, and the National Socialists. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2009. Print.
By recognizing evil as banal, society is forced to face the reality that monstrous acts are not committed by those carrying an abnormal trait. It is the normality and mediocrity which terrified Arendt, along with others who study the Eichmann trial. It is the way in which evil became so average that makes Eichmann as dangerous as he was considered, not just the thoughtless acts he committed. By changing views on evil, however, society will be able to makes steps toward understand how events such as genocide can occur within the larger society.