Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-2l2gl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-28T02:15:10.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Le «deux-en-un» : les racines platoniciennes de la «banalité du mal»

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2019

MARIE-JOSÉE LAVALLÉE*
Affiliation:
Université de Montréal / Université de Sherbrooke

Abstract

Le concept de banalité du mal, proposé par Hannah Arendt pour décrire le profil psychologique du criminel nazi dans Eichmann in Jerusalem, est intimement lié à ses lectures de Platon. Pour aborder la question du mal, elle a découvert des appuis chez Kant, mais le problème de la culpabilité sous le régime nazi renvoie ultimement au défaut de penser. Le deux-en-un, concept qui décrit la pensée, a été défini sur la base de l’œuvre platonicienne. L’examen de ces sources philosophiques permet de mieux comprendre les possibilités et les limites de la réflexion arendtienne sur le mal.

The concept of the “banality of evil,” put forward by Hannah Arendt to describe the psychological profile of the Nazi criminal in Eichmann in Jerusalem, is intimately tied to her reading of Plato. In Arendt’s examination of the question of evil, she found some support in Kant’s philosophy. However, the problem of guilt under Nazism ultimately goes back to an inability to think. The two-in-one, a concept which describes the activity of thinking, is based on Plato’s dialogues. An examination of these philosophical sources contributes to the understanding of the possibilities and the limits of Arendt’s reflection on evil.

Type
Original Article/Article original
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Références bibliographiques

Arendt, Hannah 1951 The Origins of Totalitarianism, New York (NY), Harcourt, 2e éd. (1968).Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1954 «Philosophy and Politics», Social Research, 1990, vol. 57, no 1, p. 427454.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1954–1963 «The Concept of History: Ancient and Modern», dans Between Past and Future. Eight Exercises in Political Thought, New York (NY), Penguin Books, 2006, p. 4190.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1958 The Human Condition, Chicago (IL) / Londres, Chicago University Press, 2e éd. (1998).Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1963 Eichmann in Jerusalem. Report on the Banality of Evil, New York (NY), Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1964 «Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship», Kohn, dans Jerome, dir., Responsibility and Judgment, New York (NY), Schocken Books, 2003, p. 1748.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1965–66 «Some Questions of Moral Philosophy», Kohn, dans Jerome, dir., Responsibility and Judgment, New York (NY), Schocken Books, 2003, p. 49146.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1966 «Truth and Politics», dans Between Past and Future. Eight Exercises in Political Thought, New York (NY), Penguin Books, 2006, p. 223259.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1970 Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, Beiner, Ronald, éd., Chicago (IL), University of Chicago Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1971 «Thinking and Moral Considerations», Kohn, dans Jerome, dir., Responsibility and Judgment, New York (NY), Schocken Books, 2003, p. 159189.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1972 «Lying in Politics», dans Crisis of the Republic. Reflections on the Pentagon Papers, New York (NY), Harcourt Brace, p. 148.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1975 The Life of the Mind, New York (NY), Harcourt.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah 1978 The Jew as Pariah. Identity and Politics in the Modern Age, Feldman, Ron H., éd., New York (NY), Grove Press.Google Scholar
Assy, Bethânia 2005 «Hannah Arendt’s Doxa Glorifying Judgment and Exemplarity. A Potentially Public Space», Veritas. Revista de Filosofia, vol. 50, no 1, p. 521.Google Scholar
Baehr, Peter 2010 «Banality and Cleverness. Eichmann in Jerusalem revisited», Berkowitz, dans Roger, Katz, Jeffrey et Keenan, Thomas, dir., Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics, New York (NY), Fordham University Press, p. 139144.Google Scholar
Beatty, Joseph 1994 «Thinking and Moral Considerations: Socrates’ and Arendt’s Eichmann», Hinchman, dans Lewis P. et Hinchman, Sandra K., dir., Hannah Arendt. Critical Essays, Albany (NY), State University of New York Press, p. 5777.Google Scholar
Beiner, Ronald 1992 «Arendt on Judging», Arendt, dans Hannah, Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, Chicago (IL), University of Chicago Press, p. 89174.Google Scholar
Benhabib, Seyla 1996 The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt, Thousand Oaks, Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard J. 1996 «Did Hannah Arendt Change her Mind? From Radical Evil to the Banality of Evil», May, dans Larry et Kohn, Jerome, dir., Hannah Arendt. Twenty Years Later, Cambridge (MA), MIT Press, p. 127146.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Richard J. 2010 «Is Evil Banal? A Misleading Question», Berkowitz, dans Roger, Katz, Jeffrey et Keenan, Thomas, dir., Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics, New York (NY), Fordham University Press, p. 132138.Google Scholar
Cotkin, George 2007 «Illuminating Evil: Hannah Arendt and Moral History», Modern Intellectual History, vol. 4, no 3, p. 463490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixsaut, Monique 1999 «What is that Plato Calls ‘Thinking’», Cleary, dans John J. et Gurtler, Gary, dir., Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, vol. XIII, Leiden / Boston (MA) / Cologne, Brill, p. 127.Google Scholar
Garsten, Bryan 2007 «The Elusiveness of Arendtian Judgement», Social Research, vol. 74, no 4, p. 10711108.Google Scholar
Lang, Berel 1994 «Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Evil», Hinchman, dans Lewis P. et Hinchman, Sandra K., dir., Hannah Arendt. Critical Essays, Albany (NY), State University of New York Press, p. 4155.Google Scholar
Lavallée, , Marie-Josée, 2016 «De l’Antiquité au totalitarisme : le Platon politique de Hannah Arendt», Les études classiques, vol. 84, no 2, p. 117143.Google Scholar
Lavallée, , Marie-Josée, 2018 Lire Platon avec Hannah Arendt. Pensée, politique, totalitarisme, Montréal, Presses de l’Université de Montréal.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merker, Anne 2014 «Nul n’est méchant de son plein gré», Brisson, dans Luc et Fronterotta, Francesco, dir., Lire Platon, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, p. 191200.Google Scholar
Passerin-d’Entrèves, Maurizio 2006 «“To Think Representatively”: Arendt on Judgment and the Imagination», Philosophical Papers, vol. 35, no 3, p. 367385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, James 2004 «From Radical to Banal Evil: Hannah Arendt Against the Justification of the Unjustifiable», International Journal of Philosophical Studies, vol. 12, no 2, p. 129158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platon, 1950 Œuvres complètes. Tome VIII, 3 e partie. Le Sophiste, trad. Auguste Diès, Paris, Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Platon 2008a Théétète, trad. Michel, Narcy, Brisson, dans Luc, dir., Platon. Œuvres complètes, Paris, Flammarion.Google Scholar
Platon 2008b Sophiste, trad. Nestor-Luis, Cordero, Brisson, dans Luc, dir., Platon. Œuvres complètes, Paris, Flammarion.Google Scholar
Revault d’Allones, Myriam 1994 «Kant et l’idée du mal radical», Lignes, vol. 22, no 2, p. 161187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villa, Dana R. 1996a «The Banality of Philosophy: Arendt on Heidegger and Eichmann», May, dans Larry et Kohn, Jerome, dir., Hannah Arendt. Twenty Years Later, Cambridge (MA), MIT Press, p. 179196.Google Scholar
Villa, Dana R. 1996b Politics, Philosophy, Terror: Essays in the Thought of Hannah Arendt, Princeton (NJ), Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wellmer, Albrecht 1996 «Hannah Arendt on Judgement: The Unwritten Doctrine of Reason», May, dans Larry et Kohn, Jerome, dir., Hannah Arendt. Twenty Years Later, Cambridge (MA), MIT Press, p. 3352.Google Scholar