An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hannah Arendt

henna errant is a philosopher who is very well known in continental philosophical circles but remains fairly unfairly unknown outside of continental philosophy circles errant is of course most famous for her book eichmann in jerusalem a report on the banality of evil that book was her report of the trial of nazi war criminal adolf eichmann and that phrase that she develops there the banality of evil has somewhat become a part of human consciousness aaron's philosophical views that she expressed in that book though were formed much earlier errant was a student and apparently lover of martin heidegger and she also studied under philosopher carl jasper's eret was a german jew who originally opposed the nazis until it became politically impossible for her to do so and she escaped germany just in time as she was about to undergo trial for illegal activities doing research on nazi anti-semitism and just narrowly escaped the nazi occupation of france and she was one of the fortunate few to escape to the united states that nazi tyranny deeply affected her personally and philosophically it inspired her to write in 1951 her book the origins of totalitarianism in which she took aim at what she called the novel form of government that is totalitarianism her argument in a nutshell is that totalitarianism and by this we can understand fascism and stalinism differs from despotism tyranny or dictatorship in its use of terror to subjugate mass populations instead of subjugating only political adversaries so whereas a dictator might kill off his political rivals and more or less leave the people alone totalitarianism is a broader all-encompassing terror of the population to keep them in line this led errant to conclude that the operative factor of nazi terror was not the jewish populations because the jews were merely a convenient excuse that they pulled from history but the general nazi practice of subjugation itself was the nazi terror everyone was brought into line aaron's highly controversial claim is supported by the fact that the nazi concentration camps were initially built not for jewish people but for leftist political activists and subversive intellectuals errant in no way diminishes the anti-semitism of the nazis and remember she was a victim of it herself as a jewish person but aaron places it into the wider historical context of the marginalization of minority populations throughout history including colonialism more broadly speaking aaron's claim is that totalitarianism seeks to eliminate the intellectual spiritual and artistic initiative of the individual person she considered the persecution of intellectuals religious leaders and artists by both nazi germany and stalinist russia as springing from their resentment of everything they could not understand total domination of society cannot allow people to have free created initiative because creative energies are not predictable or controllable totalitarianism preferring predictable mediocrity persecutes everyone who shows talent and initiative and replaces them with in aaron's words crackpots and fools because those with a lack of intelligence and ingenuity are the most likely to stay loyal to the regime and no doubt it was aaron's conception of this uncreative unintelligent functionary within the totalitarian apparatus that led her to see adolf eichmann in that light in her book eichmann in jerusalem she wrote that he was the unthinking dutiful functionary who was terribly and terrifyingly normal she concluded that evil isn't always radical it's not the wild-eyed berserk terrorist evil can also be simply a function of thoughtlessness totalitarianism exploits the tendency of ordinary people to conform willingly to mass opinion and obey orders the stanley milgram psychological experiments shine some light on how people are very willing to obey orders when they are told is for the greater good they're even willing to inflict pain on others if they're told it is important for them to do so to follow orders is a behavior easier for people than critically evaluating the consequences of their actions aaron said this allows evil to become banal something normalized as acceptable behavior aaron described eichmann as a human example of the banality of evil a bureaucrat who facilitated horrific crimes because he found personal meaning and importance within the nazi movement in her 1958 book the human condition erin argued that people develop within the social realm more than within the political realm here she shows carl jasper's influence outlining a view of the human condition as one of existential and aesthetic action central to her discussion is her concept of natality which she first used in her doctoral dissertation on augustine that jasper's oversaw natality is in sharp contrast to the pessimism and the obsession with mortality found in later existentialist philosophers like heidegger and sartre unlike those two eren says that people are not born in order to die but in order to begin natality in aaron's conception is the root of the human faculty of action by which people can continually find new beginnings it is a more existential version of bergson's concept of the elan vital that generates not only life but also choices in how to live eren identifies two essential human actions forgiving past wrongs an act that will unfix the fixed pass and promising future benefits an action that will fix the unfixed future moreover errant distinguishes among labor work and action labor is action directed at mere biological survival we need to procure food we need to procure shelter we need the basic things to live and survive labor is therefore a repetitive and cyclical process that has a certain error futility in it we are doomed to continually look for food and look for shelter and avoid nasty animals and things like that work she defines as different from labor in that it has a clearly defined beginning and a clearly defined end because work produces durable objects the concept of work fits both with making instrumental tools like hammers and creating works of art and here we see heidegger's influence on errant her third concept action is the ways in which people disclose themselves to each other our actions distinguish us as unique people what we do and what we say establish and communicate our individuality unlike labor and work which are directed at material objects our action is always directed at other people action generates human relationships and action maintains human relationships action because it is an expression of our individual self leads to human plurality to individual expressions and that includes art but it includes all aspects of human communication human expression and human relationships aaron notes that philosophers since plato have disliked and dismissed human plurality and indeed yes one of the main themes of western philosophies had to say is the individual doesn't exist we're all just a part of this universal of humanity but aaron considers it a basic human condition to be plural we have a twofold character of equality and distinction yes we're human we're part of the human race we're part of our society we're part of our community we're part of our family but we are always also still a distinct individual every one of us is unique acknowledging the diversity of people allows us to see what is possible in action again this is aaron's conception of action to see how action generates a kind of objectivity in the understanding of the ways in which action can be witnessed from different perspectives human plurality our distinctness creates tensions with other people in their distinctness that's a given but aaron's answers to these problems are those two essential actions of forgiveness of the past and promises for the future and so to understand errant is to understand two very large and complicated ideas that there is in human society the tendency towards totalitarianism and the tendency for individuals to fall victim to totalitarianism but there is also the reality of human action people disclosing themselves people being individuals people reveling in their plurality and distinctness these two basic forces could be seen as colliding constantly within society and this is a almost woefully inadequate introduction to errant but it's more of an introduction than most philosophy professors will ever give you

Channel: Insert Philosophy Here

Views: 23,201

Keywords: philosophy, politics, authoritarianism, fascism, humanity, action, origins

Id: 35G6q52wiNQ

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 15 2021