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Eliminating the Banality of Evil

Author: LiuPei
Tutor: WangWeiQuan
School: Jilin University
Course: The basic principles of Marxism
Keywords: the banality of evil eliminate individual morality good system
CLC: B82-06
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 118
Quote: 1
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Abstract

Hannah Arendt, as one of the 20th century’s most original thinkers and political theorists, her book-Eichmann in Jerusalem A repott on the Banality of Evil-had a profound impact on western ethics. The banality of evil embodies Arendt’s political ethics. It can be said that without the banality of evil, no clear understanding of the Holocust and no further profound reflection on western political system.Arendt’s dissolution on“the banality of evil”. Because“no thought”makes normal people committed unforgivable crimes, Arendt defined“the banality of evil”as“no thought”. The totalitarian system and regime can result in“the banality of evil”. Arendt put forward a view on the issue of how to dissolve“the banality of evil”that the mind can achieve self-dialogue and avoid evil through moral philosophy of Socrates as the theoretical background. Thus, in Arendt’s perspective, the best way of dissolving“the banality of evil”is to resort to thinking. Bauman’s dissolution on“the banality of evil”. Bowman as a successor to Arendt, he argued that modernity leads to the occurrence of the banal evil after analyzing the structure of Nazi social system. In modernity, the subject of morality is fragmented and individual morality is annihilation. Rebuilding the moral subject and unconditional commitment to the moral responsibility is Bauman’s resort to dissolving“the banality of evil”.Arendt and Bauman eventually appeal to individual morality, which depends on individual’s moral self-discipline to avoid the occurrence of the banality of evil. From the perspective of Marxism, the banality of evil is not accidental,exceptional,but inevitable, that is caused by the capitalist system per se. On the one hand, the logic of capital dominate in the capitalist society, as a result evil is the nature of capitalist society. In other words, the capitalist system per se is immoral and non-human. On the other hand, morality is not only a metaphysical issue, which needs the secular basis. Individuals can not give up the real life and pursue the metaphysical morality. Thus, the programs provided by Arendt and Bauman can not be the fundamental way to settle the banality of evil and that schemes-a beautiful ideal-suit exclusively the elites. According to the Marxism, the individual morality can not go beyond the banality of evil. The fundamental way to avoid the banal evil is to overthrow the capitalist system, which can maximize the social goodness and realize“free people of the commonwealth”, that is, the good social system is the true fundamental way to exceed the banality of evil.

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