The Origins of Totalitarianism Part I – Anti-Semitism (Hannah Arendt)
Origins of Totalitarianism I – Anti-Semitism Summary: Arendt claims that Anti-Semitism emerged primarily in the 19th century as part of the transformation of monarchies into nation-states. Monarchies had leaned upon wealthy Jewish creditors (In Austria – the Rothschilds) who…
There is No Justice in the Death Penalty (The Reader, Hannah Arendt and the Eichmann Trial)
German Stamp from 2006 featuring Hannah Arendt (Wikicommons) After working through the Reader, Hannah Arendt and Denial…the question arises as to the complexity of the argument made by Arendt when she called Eichmann a nobody and the greatest evils…
The End (Closure, Perspective and the Collapse of Multiplicity in Meaning)
Begin with the end. If something has been pleasurable, we are averse to it ending and seek environments in which it will endure. And yet the laws of entropy and emotion tell us that all things, all good things, those…
The Reader (Responsibility in a Relationship to be Oneself)
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink – an extremely successful novel published in 1995, translated quickly and eventually filmed. The characterization of the initial relationship between Hannah Schmitt and Michael Berg was one of unequal experience and power, which ultimately dooms…