HANNAH ARENDT LIFE political philosopher no systematic political philosophy interest in several key issues Hannover 1906 Jewish family Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers Berlin and Marburg University philosophy, literature, theology Germany France (1933) USA (1941) New York 1975

WORKS 1951: The Origins of Totalitarianism 1958: The Human Condition (Vita Activa) 1963: Eichmann in Jerusalem: a Report on the Banality of Evil

THE BANALITY OF EVIL Journalistic report - Trial – Otto Adolf Eichmann Nazi leader (Deportation of millions of Jews to concentration camps) Journalistic analysis – mentality – Holocaust The New Yorker - Jerusalem Otto Adolf Eichmann crimes against the Jewish people crimes against humanity crimes of war

1950 Nazis and Nazis collaborators Punishment Law DEATH PENALTY 24 May 1960 – Argentina – Israeli agents United Nations – Trial in Jerusalem 15 April 1961 To each count Eichmann pleaded: “NOT GUILTY IN THE SENSE OF THE INDICTMENT”

Arendt: “IN WHAT SENSE THEN DID HE THINK HE WAS GUILTY?” NOBODY ASKED HIM THIS OBVIOUS QUESTION Eichmann’s lawyer: “HE FEELS GUILTY BEFORE GOD, NOT BEFORE THE LAW” This answer remained without confirmation from the accused himself What Eichmann was accused of WERE NOT CRIMES but “ACTS OF STATES” over which no other state has jurisdiction Not responsible doing his job He committed acts FOR WHICH YOU ARE DECORATED IF YOU WIN AND GO TO THE GALLOWS IF YOU LOSE

Eichmann: “With the killing of Jews I had nothing to do Eichmann: “With the killing of Jews I had nothing to do. I never killed a jew, or a non-Jew (…) I never killed any human being. I never gave an order to kill either a Jew or a non-Jew (…). I could be accused only of aiding and abetting the annihilation of the Jews” Eichmann DID HIS DUTY; he not only obeyed orders, he also obeyed the law as a LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN He said he had lived his whole life according to Kant’s moral percepts and especially according to a kantian definition of duty Kan’t moral philosophy is so closely bound up with man’s faculty of judgement that it rules out blind obedience

He went to the gallows with great dignity EICHMANN’S DEATH He went to the gallows with great dignity He asked for a bottle of red wine and drank half of it He refused the help of the Protestant minister who offered to read the Bible with him He refused to wear the black hood He was in complete command of himself He was a Gottglaubiger but he was not Christian and did not believe in life after death

Eichmann = common, ordinary, average man FOCUS ON THE TITLE BANALITY THOUGHTLESSNESS Eichmann = common, ordinary, average man Superficiality Mediocrity Ordinariness Incapacity for independent critical thought Authentic inability to think

EICHMANN’S LANGUAGE A MACABRE COMEDY cliché-ridden Stock phrases Standardized code of expression No internal dialogue with himself No self-awareness of the evil nature of his deeds A MACABRE COMEDY Some attitudes commonly ripudiated by a society find a locus of manifestation in the COMMON citizen