Eichmann e a incapacidade de pensar: alienação do mundo e do pensamento em Hannah Arendt
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Data
2020-02-28
Autores
Pereira, Renato de Oliveira [UNESP]
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Editor
Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Resumo
A presente dissertação de mestrado em filosofia tem o objetivo de investigar quais são condições que propiciam aquilo que Hannah Arendt denominou de incapacidade de pensar (thoughtlessness). Nosso foco é o caso Eichmann tal como descrito pela pensadora em Eichmann em Jerusalém (1963), obra que resulta da participação de Arendt no julgamento do ex-tenente-coronel da SS. Durante o Terceiro Reich, Eichmann foi o responsável pela gestão e organização dos transportes dos judeus para os campos de concentração e extermínio. O descompasso entre a monstruosidade dos crimes que o antigo tenente-coronel nazista ajudou a perpetrar e a sua figura perante o tribunal – que não pareceu monstruosa ou maléfica a Arendt, mas completamente normal e até medíocre –, levou a pensadora a cunhar a expressão banalidade do mal. Com tal expressão, Arendt visava designar a prática de ações que, apesar de resultarem em um mal extremo, não são causadas por motivos torpes, instintos corrompidos ou por uma vontade maligna, e sim pela obediência ao dever de ofício. Para explicar o problema do mal banal, Arendt supõe a existência de uma relação entre a incapacidade de pensar (thoughtlessness), notável em Eichmann pelo uso constante que ele fazia de frases de efeito e dos clichês, e a prática do mal. Nesta dissertação, aceitamos essa relação como pressuposto para investigarmos quais são condições que prejudicam a capacidade de pensar. Em um primeiro momento, analisamos, com base no ensaio “Ideologia e Terror”, último capítulo de Origens do totalitarismo, como o regime totalitário produz a incapacidade de pensar a partir da ideologia entendida enquanto a lógica de uma ideia. Essa análise nos mostrou que a experiência da solidão (loneliness), na qual o totalitarismo se alicerça, já era recorrente nas sociedades de massa antes da ascensão dos regimes totalitários. Assim, para compreendermos como essa experiência é engendrada pela própria Era moderna, recorrermos à obra A condição humana e, em especial, ao tema da vitória do animal laborans, que Arendt menciona já em “Ideologia e terror”. A quase total redução de todos os atos humanos ao trabalho (labor), entendido enquanto a atividade que visa satisfazer às necessidades biológicas, faz com que a vida humana se torne desprovida de sentido. Isso ocorre porque a mera busca por sustento, embora seja importante para a manutenção da vida, não é suficiente para instaurar um mundo comum no qual possa se afirmar a pluralidade humana, condição para o exercício da capacidade de agir, sentir e também de pensar.
The present master's dissertation in philosophy aims to investigate what are the conditions that enable what Hannah Arendt called thoughtlessness. Our focus is the Eichmann case as described by the thinker in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), the result of the Arendt’s participation in the trial of the former SS lieutenant-colonel. Eichmann was responsible for managing and organizing the transport of Jews to the concentration and extermination camps during the Third Reich. The disproportion between the monstrosity of the crimes that Eichmann helped to perpetrate and his figure before the court – which did not seem monstrous or maleficent to Arendt, but completely normal and even average –, led the thinker to create the expression “banality of evil”. With this expression, Arendt aimed to designate the practice of actions that, even though results in an extreme evil, are not caused by base motives, corrupt instincts or by an evil will, but by obedience to the professional duty. In order to explain the problem of banal evil, Arendt supposes the existence of a relation between thoughtlessness, remarkable in Eichmann by his constant use of stock phrases and clichés, and the practice of evil. In this dissertation, we accept this relation as an assumption in order to investigate what are the conditions that impair the ability to think. At first, we analyze, based on the essay "Ideology and Terror", the last chapter of Origins of totalitarianism, how the totalitarian regime produces the thoughtlessness (inability to think) from the ideology as the logic of an idea. This analysis showed us that the experience of loneliness, on which totalitarianism is founded, was already recurrent in mass societies before the rise of totalitarian regimes. Thus, in order to understand how this experience is engendered by the Modern Era itself, we resort to The human condition and, in particular, to the theme of the victory of the animal laborans, which Arendt already mentions in “Ideology and terror”. The almost total reduction of all human acts to labor as an activity that aims to satisfy biological needs, makes human life meaningless. This is because the mere search for sustenance, although it is important for the maintenance of life, is not enough to establish a common world in which human plurality can be affirmed, a condition for the exercise of the ability to act, feel and also think.
The present master's dissertation in philosophy aims to investigate what are the conditions that enable what Hannah Arendt called thoughtlessness. Our focus is the Eichmann case as described by the thinker in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), the result of the Arendt’s participation in the trial of the former SS lieutenant-colonel. Eichmann was responsible for managing and organizing the transport of Jews to the concentration and extermination camps during the Third Reich. The disproportion between the monstrosity of the crimes that Eichmann helped to perpetrate and his figure before the court – which did not seem monstrous or maleficent to Arendt, but completely normal and even average –, led the thinker to create the expression “banality of evil”. With this expression, Arendt aimed to designate the practice of actions that, even though results in an extreme evil, are not caused by base motives, corrupt instincts or by an evil will, but by obedience to the professional duty. In order to explain the problem of banal evil, Arendt supposes the existence of a relation between thoughtlessness, remarkable in Eichmann by his constant use of stock phrases and clichés, and the practice of evil. In this dissertation, we accept this relation as an assumption in order to investigate what are the conditions that impair the ability to think. At first, we analyze, based on the essay "Ideology and Terror", the last chapter of Origins of totalitarianism, how the totalitarian regime produces the thoughtlessness (inability to think) from the ideology as the logic of an idea. This analysis showed us that the experience of loneliness, on which totalitarianism is founded, was already recurrent in mass societies before the rise of totalitarian regimes. Thus, in order to understand how this experience is engendered by the Modern Era itself, we resort to The human condition and, in particular, to the theme of the victory of the animal laborans, which Arendt already mentions in “Ideology and terror”. The almost total reduction of all human acts to labor as an activity that aims to satisfy biological needs, makes human life meaningless. This is because the mere search for sustenance, although it is important for the maintenance of life, is not enough to establish a common world in which human plurality can be affirmed, a condition for the exercise of the ability to act, feel and also think.
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Palavras-chave
Arendt, Hannah, Caso Eichmann, Totalitarismo, Pensamento, Ideologia, Eichmann Case, Totalitarianism, Thinking, Ideology