A Taxonomy of Evils: Expanding On Hannah Arendt’s Conceptions of Evil to Identify Four Variations
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Date
2024
Authors
Millay, Shealyn
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism examines the rise of Nazism and Stalinism and explores the mechanics of totalitarian movements. She believed that evil in the conventional sense could not describe certain horrors. Conventional evil can be understood in human terms, as it often involves a human desire and uses people for some end (without regard for morality). However, the evils of the Holocaust, for example, were marked by a lack of humanity and impossible to understand in human terms. She applies the term “radical evil,” a Kantian term that she uses to describe the deliberate—yet purposeless—rendering of humans as superfluous.
In a later work, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, she changes her definition of evil, introducing what she calls “the banality of evil.” Unlike radical evil, banal evil is hyper-rational, yet thoughtlessly intertwined within bureaucratic systems. It occurs when a system is working toward an evil end, and the people within the system don’t see themselves as responsible for evil because they are only doing their job. While she may describe Hitler with radical evil, many of the administrators and officials under Hitler may not have harbored antisemitic hatred, but participated in genocide out of dull, bureaucratic duty. While Arendt
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spoke as if there could only be one definition of evil, changing her conception from radical to banal, this paper will argue that they each describe different phenomena and can exist simultaneously.
Additionally, this paper will argue that there is another, previously undefined form of evil, which will be called frenzied evil. While radical evil is thoughtful yet irrational, and while banal evil is rational but thoughtless, frenzied evil is irrational and thoughtless. During his rise to power, Hitler used his speaking skills to drive people into a furious frenzy. Events like the Kristallnacht contained an impulsive and impassioned hatred that was likely, for some participants, devoid of critical thinking. In total, this paper will argue for four categories of evil: conventional, radical, banal, and frenzied.
Description
50 pages
Keywords
Arendt, Holocaust, Evil, Nazis, Eichmann