Study On "the Banality Of Evil" Of Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt was one of the foremost political philosophers of the twentieth century by virtue of the theory of totalitarianism and her controversial idea of the "banality of evil". From the <The Origins of Totalitarianism>,she had faced up to the most evil inherent quality of humanity. However, when watched the main criminal Adolf Eichmann of the Nazi regime, she didn’t find the profound evil idea or motive, there is an appalling irrelevance between the conscious state and the most flagitious crime. As Arendt had been said, except these commonplace remark or notion, there is nothing we can find. She named it as the "banality" of humanity, and titled it with evil. This is the emergence of the controversial idea of "the banality of evil".The idea of "the banality of evil" emerged from Arendt’s idea of "radical evil", which was to interpret the strongly held opinion of totalitarianism that "human is superfluous" and to disprove the philosophical opinion in tradition that evil comes from human’s utility motivation. According to Hannah Arendt, the opinion of totalitarianism is based upon the basis of reason beyond human’s comprehension. Nevertheless, the basis of reason means totalitarianism is rationality. This deduction is ridiculous. In settlement of the predicament in finding the reason of "radical evil" motivation, Hannah Arendt resorted to the Hermeneutics, regarded evil as the banality, which is irrational and insignificant through the moral sight compared with the moral life.