Can evildoers think well?

irishrosem · Doctorate Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 536 Gender:

I’ve only gotten through part of this still. But is Arendt suggesting that the only way to avoid atrocities like Nazi Germany is to develop a moral philosophy that is separate from the dictated laws, and subsequent obedience, of both government and religion? Otherwise, people will be capable of trading dictated moral codes, which are really just mores, as easily as a group can be persuaded to change their table manners—as she’s noted more than once.

MadArchitect · Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:05 pm Post subject:

Arendt seems to distrust moral systemization. I'd say that's at root in what she's suggesting here. To fix moral as something external, something that can be referenced like a book in a library, gives rise to too many problems. One is that ease with which populations and individuals can trade one for another. A second -- one that Arendt deals with less -- is that such systems tend to be inflexible, making misapplication endemic.

What she's suggesting as an alternative, it seems to me, is related to the idea of a moral sense or faculty. Or rather, the re-envisioning of morality as an approach to problems of conduct, rather than proscriptions for conduct.


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