Language:
English
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
European Judaism
Angaben zur Quelle:
32,2 (1999) 11-25
Keywords:
Arendt, Hannah,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Philosophy
Abstract:
Contrasts Arendt's early postwar writings with "Eichmann in Jerusalem". In the former she stressed Nazi ideology more than Nazism's modern characteristics (use of technology, functional rationality, and bureaucracy) which she later focused on as the basis for the Holocaust. In both periods she stressed the lack of connection between Nazism and Western, especially German, philosophical and political traditions. Her letters to Karl Jaspers ca. 1946 offered a different, ontological perspective concerning what it meant to be human and the Nazi attempt "to eradicate the concept of the human being". This idea, which is present in "The Origins of Totalitarianism", is dropped in her book on Eichmann. There, the "banality of evil" implies that evil cannot be radical; questions about the nature of humanity are avoided. Concludes that the latter reflects Arendt's attempt to protect her philosophical and emotional stability. Avoidance of the question allows Arendt to salvage a belief in human goodness.
Note:
Appeared also in his "History, Memory and Mass Atrocity" (2006) 53-69.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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