Eichmann, the Banality of Evil, and Thinking in Arendts Thought Essay

Eichmann, the Banality of Evil, and Thinking in Arendts Thought* ABSTRACT I analyze the ways in which the faculty of thinking can avoid evil action, taking into account Hannah Arendts discussion regarding the banality of evil and thoughtlessness in connection with the Eichmann trial. I counseling on the following question posed by Arendt Could the activity of thinking as such, the habit of examining and reflecting upon whatever happens to come to pass, regardless of specific content and quite independent of results, could this activity be of such a nature that it conditions men against evildoing? Examples of the connection mingled with evildoing and thinking include the distinction between the commonplace and the banal, and the absence of the depth characteristic of banality and the necessity of thinking as the means for depth. I then focus upon Arendts model thinker (Socrates) and make do that the faculty of thinking works to avoid evildoing by utilizing the Socratic principle o f noncontradiction. What is the subject of our thought? Experience Nothing else (1) (Hannah Arendt)Eichmann in capital of Israel (2) was originated when Hannah Arendt went to Jerusalem in order to report, for The New Yorker, on the trial of Otto Adolf Eichmann, (3) who was acused of crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The trial began in April 15, 1961. The New York Times had announced Eichmanns capture by Israeli agents in Argentina, in May 24, 1960. Israel and Argentina had discussed Eichmanns extradition to Israel, and the United Nations finally decided the legality of Jerusalem Trial. After the confirmation that Eichamnn was to be judged in Israel, Arendt asked The New Yorkers director, William Shamn, to ... ...(29) ib.(30) Ibid.(31) See, in this regard, TMC, p. 425.(32) TMC, p. 423.(33) LM p. 168. (34) LM., p. 180.(35) (Protagoras, 339c.) LM p.186.(36) The first part of the Morality Lectures 1995, given by Arendt at New work, was publish ed as Some Questions of Moral Philosophy. In Social Research, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter 1994), pp. 739-64. The other three parts remain unpublished as Some Questions of Moral Philosophy. Morality Lectures 1965, New School for Social Research, Hannah Arendts Papers, The Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, container 45. We will take the following systematic Some Questions of Moral Philosophy I for the part published and Some Questions of Moral Philosophy II for the unpublished one. This quotation is in Some Questions of Moral Philosophy II 024633.(37) Ibid., 024636.(38) LM., p. 193.