Is radical evil banal? Is banal evil radical?

Philosophy and Social Criticism 33 (6):717-735 (2007)
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Abstract

There has been much recent debate concerning how Hannah Arendt's concepts of radical evil and the banality of evil `fit together', if at all. I argue that the first of these concepts deals with a certain type of evil, in particular the evil that occurred in the Nazi death camps. The second deals with a certain type of perpetrator of evil, in particular the banal `nobody', Eichmann. As such, bar a localized incompatibility in regard to Arendt's early account of the motivation of perpetrators of radical evil, these two concepts are independent but nonetheless highly complementary. Key Words: Hannah Arendt • banality of evil • Adolf Eichmann • evil • forgiveness • Immanuel Kant • punishment • radical evil.

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Paul Formosa
Macquarie University

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References found in this work

Wickedness.[author unknown] - 2001 - Routledge.
Some Questions of Moral Philosophy.Hannah Arendt - 1994 - Social Research: An International Quarterly 61 (4):739-764.
Wickedness.S. I. Benn - 1985 - Ethics 95 (4):795-810.
Reflections on the Banality of (Radical) Evil.Henry E. Allison - 1995 - Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 18 (2):141-158.
Hannah Arendt on conscience and evil.Arne Johan Vetlesen - 2001 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 27 (5):1-33.

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