Menu Close

Articles on Hannah Arendt

Displaying all articles

A woman at a Holocaust Memorial Centre in Macedonia looks at portraits of Jewish people killed in the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp. Georgi Licovkski/AAP

Is it time to reconsider the idea of ‘the banality of evil’?

Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was anything but banal. His case is an apt reminder of how evil agents can deflect accountability, denying victims even the thin consolation of the moral high ground.
The bulletproof glass booth in which Adolf Eichmann (pictured) testified during his trial in Jerusalem. Richard Drew/AP

The book that changed me: Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem and the problem of terrifying moral complacency

As a child of Hungarian Jews, reading Eichmann in Jerusalem was a revelation to Peter Christoff. Yet might the ‘Eichmann problem’ of criminal disregard apply, today to those exploiting fossil fuels?
Today, artificial intelligence is deeply imbedded in the systems we use to make decisions. However, the assumptions on which they’re built are often completely hidden to us. mikemacmarketing

Artificial intelligence and algorithmic irresponsibility: the devil in the machine?

While AI is intended to help us, it tempts us to abandon judgment and moral responsibility. And without a proper understanding of how it works, we cannot circumvent its negative effects.
The beginning of the year has brought not only a cascade of bad news but also a wealth of great memes. With detached humour, people on the internet are identifying a problem, but the question remains: what do do about it? (Shutterstock)

Coronavirus, climate crisis, conflicts: Meme-ing our way through the ‘apocalypse’

Despite the nihilism and pessimism of internet memes, people ultimately understand the direness of the danger posed by a powerful virus, climate change and global instability.
A man adds his comments to a spontaneous memorial of flowers and sidewalk writing that has appeared a block from the Tree of Life Synagogue on Monday, Oct. 29. A gunman shot a killed 11 people while they worshipped at the synagogue the Saturday before. Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo

Educators must challenge the politics of evil

To grasp how extraordinary evils are often committed by ordinary people, we need to consider how we define evil, and most importantly, whom we consider to be the agents of evil.
A 1969 photo of political theorist and scholar Hannah Arendt. AP Photo

The power of ordinary people facing totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, fled Germany during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and later wrote about ‘the banality of evil.’ Her work has recently become a best-seller. Here’s why.
Donald Trump’s boastful and bullying leadership style encapsulates many of the worst features and sentiments of today’s world. Darron Bergenheier/flick

Humility’s value for democracy in dark times

In a world out of balance, one in which arrogance and unaccountability combine in a corrosive synergy, humility can offer a powerful alternative vision of how to approach democratic government.
Barbara Sukowa plays German intellectual Hannah Arendt in Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic. Heimatfilm

Review: thinking on screen – von Trotta’s ‘Hannah Arendt’

In 1961, German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt was sent by The New Yorker to cover Adolf Eichmann’s trial, in Jerusalem, Israel, where he faced execution for crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes…

Top contributors

More