Responsibility and Judgment [Paperback]

Responsibility and Judgment gathers together unpublished writings from the last decade of Arendt’s life, where she addresses fundamental questions and concerns about the nature of evil and the making of moral choices. At the heart of the book is a profound ethical investigation, “Some Questions of Moral Philosophy,” in which Arendt confronts the inadequacy of traditional moral “truths” as standards to judge what we are capable of doing and examines anew our ability to distinguish good from evil and right from wrong. We also see how Arendt comes to understand that alongside the radical evil she had addressed in earlier analyses of totalitarianism, there exists a more pernicious evil, independent of political ideology, whose execution is limitless when the perpetrator feels no remorse and can forget his acts as soon as they are committed.

Responsibility and Judgment is an indispensable investigation into some of the most troubling and important issues of our time.Introduction by Jerome Kohn
A Note on the Text

Prologue

I. RESPONSIBILITY

Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship
Some Questions of Moral Philosophy
Collective Responsibility
Thinking and Moral Consideration

II. JUDGMENT

Reflections on Little Rock
The Deputy: Guilt by Silence?
Auschwitz on Trial
Home to Roost“WithEichmann in JerusalemHannah Arendt wrote the 20th century's most important - and controversial - work on the problem of evil, and the least understood. The publication ofResponsibility and Judgmentis thus a particularly welcome event. For readers who know Arendt, the autobiographical reflections or the discussions of personal responsibility under dictatorship will be of great interest in understanding the background ofEichmann in JerusalemorThe Life of the Mind. For readers who don't, essays such as "Auschwitz on Trial" will provide a superb il“.