Description
Book SynopsisBegins by focusing on some controversial aspects of Arendt's political thought. This title shows that Arendt's idea of the banality of evil - inspired by the trial of Adolf Eichmann - does not lessen the guilt of war criminals by suggesting that they are mere cogs in a bureaucratic machine.
Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2000 "Villa explores the tensions between [Hannah] Arendt's disdain for those who fail to think and her distrust of the contemplative retreat from the world... [A] lucid and illuminating book."--John Plotz, Lingua Franca "In this splendid collection Villa focuses on Arendt's analysis of totalitarian evil and its relationship to the philosophical tradition."--Choice
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER ONE Terror and Radical Evil 11 CHAPTER Two Conscience, the Banality of Evil, and the Idea of a Representative Perpetrator 39 CHAPTER THREE The Anxiety of Influence: On Arendt's Relationship to Heidegger 61 CHAPTER FOUR Thinking and Judging 87 CHAPTER FIVE Democratizing the Agon: Nietzsche, Arendt, and the Agonistic Tendency in Recent Political Theory 107 CHAPTER SIX Theatricality and the Public Realm 128 CHAPTER SEVEN The Philosopher versus the Citizen: Arendt, Strauss, and Socrates 155 CHAPTER EIGHT Totalitarianism, Modernity, and the Tradition 180 CHAPTER NINE Arendt and Socrates 204 Abbreviations 219 Notes 221 Index 261
