Arendt and the "Banality" of Evil: A Note on Neiman
Main Article Content
Abstract
Susan Neiman claims in Evil in Modern Thought that Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem may be understood as a work of theodicy inasmuch as it gives “meaning to evil that helps us face despair.” More precisely, Neiman claims that to call evil banal “implies that the sources of evil are not mysterious or profound but fully within our grasp” and even “shallow enough to pull up.” This note argues that Neiman’s interpretation of Arendt’s book is mistaken and that Arendt does not hold that evil has “shallow” roots, but no roots at all.
Article Details
Issue
Section
Notes, Insights, and Flashes
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).