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Banal Evil and Useless Knowledge: Hannah Arendt and Charlotte Delbo on Evil after the Holocaust

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Jennifer L. Geddes
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Abstract

Hannah Arendt's and Charlotte Delbo's writings about the Holocaust trouble our preconceptions about those who do evil and those who suffer evil. Their jarring terms “banal evil” and “useless knowledge” point to limitations and temptations facing scholars of evil. While Arendt helps us to resist the temptation to mythologize evil, Delbo helps us to resist the temptation to domesticate suffering.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 18 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil , Winter 2003 , pp. 104 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Hypatia, Inc.

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