ARENDT’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE ROLE OF THE INTELLECT IN THE ACT OF AVOIDING EVIL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58919/juftek.v1i2.3Keywords:
Evil, totalitarianism, conscience, thinking, thoughtlessness, intellect, banality of evil, imagination.Abstract
Human being is a rational animal who has the capability to think. The activity of thinking distinguishes man from other animals. Nevertheless, there are some people who do not use their capability to think. Many people just follow what other people said without really considering what they actually do. For Hannah Arendt, this is one of the factors that causes many evils have occurred in our daily life. Moreover, she used the term of the banality of evil to describe the evil that has happened because of the culprit’s inability to think. Therefore, she emphasized the importance of thinking in every human being. For her, thinking makes human to avoid grave evil.
References
Works by Hannah Arendt
ARENDT, Hannah. Between Past and Future: Six Exercises in Political
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The Life of the Mind. Harcourt, Inc., New York 1978.
Men in Dark Times. A Harvest Book, New York (NY) 1968.
“Philosophy and Politics.” Social Research 57 (1990).
“Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture.” Social Research
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“Understanding and Politics.” Partisan Review 20 (1953): 377-92. ARENDT, Hannah and MCCARTHY, Mary. Between Friends: The
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Works about Hannah Arendt and Other Relevant Literature Cited
AMIEL, Anne. Hannah Arendt Politique et événement. Presses
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Hannah ARENDT, The Life of the Mind, “Thinking”…, 13.
BERKOWITZ, Roger - KATZ, Jeffrey - KEENAN, Thomas. Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics. Fordham University Press, New York 2010.
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ENEGRÉN, André. La Pensée Politique de Hannah Arendt. Presses
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HINCHMAN, Lewis P. - HINCHMAN, Sandra K. (eds.). Hannah Arendt: Critical
Essays. State University of New York Press, Albany 1994.
KAMPOWSKI, Stephan. Arendt, Augustine, and the New Beginning: The Action Theory and Moral Thought of Hannah Arendt in the Light of Her Dissertation on St. Augustine. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Michigan (MI) 2008.
KOHN, Jerome (ed.). The Promise of Politics. Schocken Books, New York
VETLESEN, Arne Johan. “Hannah Arendt on Conscience and Evil”, Philosophy & Social Criticism 27 No. 5. SAGE Publications, London 2001.
VILLA, Dana. R. Politics, Philosophy Terror: Essays on the Thought of
Hannah Arendt. Princeton University Press, New Jersey (NJ)
(ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt. Cambridge
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