The Banality Of Good And Evil PDF Book

Author : Bernard J. Bergen
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Release : 2000-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780585116969
File Size : 20,9 Mb
Total Download : 443

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Book Summary: This highly original book is the first to explore the political and philosophical consequences of Hannah Arendt's concept of 'the banality of evil,' a term she used to describe Adolph Eichmann, architect of the Nazi 'final solution.' According to Bernard J. Bergen, the questions that preoccupied Arendt were the meaning and significance of the Nazi genocide to our modern times. As Bergen describes Arendt's struggle to understand 'the banality of evil,' he shows how Arendt redefined the meaning of our most treasured political concepts and principles_freedom, society, identity, truth, equality, and reason_in light of the horrific events of the Holocaust. Arendt concluded that the banality of evil results from the failure of human beings to fully experience our common human characteristics_thought, will, and judgment_and that the exercise and expression of these attributes is the only chance we have to prevent a recurrence of the kind of terrible evil perpetrated by the Nazis.

Author : Elizabeth K. Minnich
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Release : 2016-12-07
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781442275973
File Size : 26,8 Mb
Total Download : 247

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Book Summary: Asking, How could they do it? about the many ordinary people who have been perpetrators and those who resist extensive evils—genocide, human trafficking, endemic sexualized violations of females, economic exploitation—the book delves into historic, contemporary, national, and international examples. The author, a moral philosopher, draws also on literature, psychology, economics, journalism, pop culture. Reversing Arendt’s banality of evil, she finds that mind-deadening banality, thoughtless conventionality, ambition, greed, status-seeking enable the evil of banality.

Author : David R. Blumenthal
Publisher : Georgetown University Press
Release : 1999-04-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1589014251
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Total Download : 370

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Book Summary: People who helped exterminate Jews during the shoah (Hebrew for "holocaust") often claimed that they only did what was expected of them. Intrigued by hearing the same response from individuals who rescued Jews, David R. Blumenthal proposes that the notion of ordinariness used to characterize Nazi evil is equally applicable to goodness. In this provocative book, Blumenthal develops a new theory of human behavior that identifies the social and psychological factors that foster both good and evil behavior. Drawing on lessons primarily from the shoah but also from well-known obedience and altruism experiments, My Lai, and the civil rights movement, Blumenthal deftly interweaves insights from psychology, history, and social theory to create a new way of looking at human behavior. Blumenthal identifies the factors — social hierarchy, education, and childhood discipline — that shape both good and evil attitudes and actions. Considering how our religious and educational institutions might do a better job of encouraging goodness and discouraging evil, he then makes specific recommendations for cultivating goodness in people, stressing the importance of the social context of education. He reinforces his ideas through stories, teachings, and case histories from the Jewish tradition that convey important lessons in resistance and goodness. Appendices include the ethical code of the Israel Defense Forces, material on non-violence from the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center, a suggested syllabus for a Jewish elementary school, and a list of prosocial sources on the Web, as well as a complete bibliography. If people can commit acts of evil without thinking, why can’t even more commit acts of kindness? Writing with power and insight, Blumenthal shows readers of all faiths how we might replace patterns of evil with empathy, justice, and caring, and through a renewed attention to moral education, perhaps prevent future shoahs.

Author : Hannah Arendt
Publisher : Penguin
Release : 2006-09-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781101007167
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Total Download : 375

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Book Summary: The controversial journalistic analysis of the mentality that fostered the Holocaust, from the author of The Origins of Totalitarianism Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt’s postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative—an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling (and unsettled) issues of the twentieth century.

Author : Hannah Arendt
Publisher : Unknown
Release : 1970
Category : Uncategorized
ISBN : OCLC:174202116
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Total Download : 300

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Author : Andrew P. Chignell
Publisher : Oxford Philosophical Concepts
Release : 2019
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199915453
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Total Download : 985

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Book Summary: The code of conduct for a leading tech company famously says "Don't Be Evil." But what exactly is evil? Is it just badness by another name--the shadow side of good? Or is it something more substantive--a malevolent force or power at work in the universe? These are some of the ontological questions that philosophers have grappled with for centuries. But evil also raises perplexing epistemic and psychological questions. Can we really know evil? Does a victim know evil differently than a perpetrator or witness? What motivates evil-doers? Satan's rebellion, Iago's machinations, and Stalin's genocides may be hard to understand in terms of ordinary reasons, intentions, beliefs, and desires. But what about the more "banal" evils performed by technocrats in a collective: how do we make sense of Adolf Eichmann's self-conception as just an effective bureaucrat deserving of a promotion? Evil: A History collects thirteen essays that tell the story of evil in western thought, starting with its origins in ancient Hebrew wisdom literature and classical Greek drama all the way to Darwinism and Holocaust theory. Thirteen interspersed reflections contextualize philosophical developments by looking at evil through the eyes of animals, poets, mystics, witches, librettists, film directors, and even a tech product manager. Evil: A History will enlighten readers about one of the most alluring and difficult topics in philosophy and intellectual life, and will challenge their assumptions about the very nature of evil.

Author : Bernard J. Bergen
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Release : 1998
Category : Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
ISBN : 0847692108
File Size : 16,9 Mb
Total Download : 626

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Book Summary: Takes its point of departure from Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem." Focuses neither on Eichmann nor the Holocaust, but on what Bergen sees as the political and philosophical consequences of the "banality of evil." These derive from the human failure to develop the thought, will, and judgment that are necessary to prevent the kind of evil committed by the Nazis. Like Arendt, Bergen is more concerned with totalitarianism than antisemitism, often referring to her work "The Origins of Totalitarianism."

Author : Roger Berkowitz,Jeffrey Katz,Thomas Keenan
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
Release : 2010
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780823230754
File Size : 19,8 Mb
Total Download : 730

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Book Summary: Hannah Arendt is one of the most important political theorists of the twentieth century. In her works, she grappled with the dark events of that century, probing the nature of power, authority, and evil, and seeking to confront totalitarian horrors on their own terms. This book focuses on how, against the professionalized discourses of theory, Arendt insists on the greater political importance of the ordinary activity of thinking. Indeed, she argues that the activity of thinking is the only reliable protection against the horrors that buffeted the last century. Its essays explore and enact that activity, which Arendt calls the habit of erecting obstacles to oversimplifications, compromises, and conventions. Most of the essays were written for a conference at Bard College celebrating the 100th anniversary of Arendt's birth. Arendt left her personal library and literary effects to Bard, and she is buried in the Bard College cemetery. Material from the Bard archive--such as a postcard to Arendt from Walter Benjamin or her annotation in her copy of Machiavelli's The Prince--and images from her life are interspersed with the essays in this volume. The volume will offer provocations and insights to Arendt scholars, students discovering Arendt's work, and general readers attracted to Arendt's vision of the importance of thinking in our own dark times.