Philosophy › The 20th century › Existentialism
Hannah Arendt
1906–1975· Philosopher· Politics, society & justice
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
German-American political thinker who analyzed totalitarianism and coined 'the banality of evil' after watching Adolf Eichmann's trial.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: great evil can be done by ordinary people who fail to think, not only by monsters. A Jewish student of Heidegger and Jaspers, she fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and reached New York in 1941. The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) traced Nazism and Stalinism to antisemitism, imperialism and lonely, uprooted masses. The Human Condition (1958) distinguished labor, work and action. At Eichmann's 1961 trial in Jerusalem she saw a careerist bureaucrat. Main objection: later research showed Eichmann was a committed ideologue.
Why it matters
She gave the 20th century key concepts for understanding totalitarianism, political freedom and evil, and is widely read again on propaganda and democracy.
Legacy and sources
Her books, her New Yorker reports collected as Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), and letters with Heidegger, Jaspers and Mary McCarthy. Bettina Stangneth's 2011 study re-examined Eichmann.
Still debated
Whether 'the banality of evil' fits Eichmann himself, and her criticism of the Jewish councils under Nazi rule, remain fiercely debated.
Connections (3)
▸Karl Marx was critiqued by Hannah ArendtWell documented
The connection
Arendt took Marx seriously but argued he blurred key distinctions. In The Human Condition she separated labor (endless toil to stay alive), work (making lasting things) and action (acting together in public). Marx, she said, glorified labor and treated politics as a means to economic ends, leaving no room for freedom as shared action.
When and how
She developed the critique in early-1950s lectures and manuscripts on Marx, and in The Human Condition (Chicago, 1958).
How we know
The Human Condition devotes long sections to Marx; her unfinished 1950s manuscripts on Marx and Western political thought have since been published.
Debates and open questions
Marxist scholars argue she misread Marx's broader idea of labor; others see her critique as aimed at modern economics generally, liberal as well as Marxist.
▸Martin Heidegger, Being and Time taught Hannah ArendtWell documented
The connection
Arendt studied with Heidegger at Marburg at 18, and they had a secret love affair. His way of rethinking basic concepts from their Greek roots shaped her work, but she turned it toward politics, plurality and action, which she thought he neglected. She condemned his Nazism yet later helped revive his reputation in America.
When and how
Marburg University, 1924–25; she left to study with Karl Jaspers in Heidelberg in 1926 and renewed contact with Heidegger in Freiburg in 1950.
How we know
Their letters, published in 1998, document the relationship; her books engage his ideas, often without naming him.
Debates and open questions
How much his thought shaped hers, and whether her postwar loyalty to him was a lapse in judgment, are still debated.
▸Hannah Arendt added "the banality of evil" to The problem of evilWell documented
The connection
Covering the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, a chief organizer of Holocaust deportations, Arendt saw not a monster but a careerist who had stopped thinking. Her phrase 'the banality of evil' shifted attention from why God permits evil to how ordinary people come to commit it.
When and how
Jerusalem, 1961 trial; Eichmann in Jerusalem, published in The New Yorker and as a book in 1963.
How we know
The book and her later lectures (The Life of the Mind) set out the idea; it provoked a fierce public controversy.
Debates and open questions
Historians using documents unavailable to her argue Eichmann was a committed antisemite, not merely thoughtless, so her portrait is disputed.