What are the differences between Kant and Arendt on radical evil Essays

What are the differences between Kant and Arendt on radical evil Essays What are the differences between Kant and Arendt on radical evil Paper What are the differences between Kant and Arendt on radical evil Paper he was a normal family man. This was concluded after a long series of psychological tests. How could somebody so normal be responsible for the deaths of so many people? Even the judges had trouble accepting that Eichmann was normal and incapable of telling right from wrong. They preferred to conclude that he was a liar. 9 Eichmann was not alone. He was part of a nation responsible as a whole for racial genocide. He could not have completed his objectives alone, without the help of normal, everyday people. These ordinary people were merely carrying out [orders] given by Hitler10 It is not surprising then that they guilty not of crimes but acts of state11 Brutal acts of murder were objectified. Killing with lethal gases for us seems a heinous crime but for those who carried out such acts during Hitlers regime it was a medical matter12 Arendt deduced from these experiences that evil is the absence of thought the shallowness of the evildoer. For Arendt, thinking amounts to a quest to understand the meaning of our world, the ceaseless and restless activity of questioning that which we encounter internally and externally. The value of thinking is not that it yields conclusive results in the same way that empirical knowledge does, but that it constantly returns to question again and again. This, for Arendt, is the cause of our moral responsibility. It was precisely the failure of this capacity that characterized the banality of Eichmanns inclination to participate in political evil. As Plato said thinking is an activity without which life would not be much. Our lives would become mechanical and determined. We are according to Arendt obliged to question things like justice and love etc The people of Germany had the task of thinking alleviated by their Fuhrer. Hitler had created a culture which seemed legitimate to those living in it. With his clever use of propaganda and symbolism he managed to convince his people of the legitimacy of his ideals and intentions. He used stricking phrases such as: the battle of destiny for the german people13 which created a false image of the Nazi regime. The battle of destiny implies that the war against the Jews was a battle that was destined to happen and was unavoidable. Architecture was another tool used by Hitler to create the symbol of world domination and the Nazi ideology. The Olympic stadium, for example, designed by Walter Marsh, symbolized the self confidence of the masters of the German people. These were a contribution to the mind set that all is under control and therefore officially legal and morally correct. Eichmann epitomised the natural gullibility of human beings in general. He, as did many others did not realize that [he was] being manipulated14 They were not aware that Hitler had conspired to present himself with divine radiance. Albert Speer, Hitlers architect was quoted to have said that he was thinking as a specialist and not as a human being. [He] forgot that humanity is the most important part of life. 15 With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to say that it is better to be out of tune with everyone else than with yourself. Hannah Arendt said in her essay, Thinking and Moral Considerations a Lecture, that within our minds is an original split. We have within us the reflector and the reflected. We in effect witness our own thoughts, thus creating an internal dialogue between me and a certain otherness. It is this dialogue that manifests consciousness and it is extremely important to be friends with this other. Socrates once said that he can be friends with the sufferer of evil but I cannot live with a murderer. This implies that we are internally punished for our external actions, but, only those who know that they are doing wrong will suffer as a result of this internal dialogue. The people who do not suffer are the ones who do not know that they are doing wrong.