Modesty and Arrogance in Judgment - Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem

Sharpe examines Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem as a case study of Arendt's theoretical work on judgment. In addition, he seeks to illustrate two dimensions of judgment: modesty-who am I to judge? and arrogance-how dare you judge me? He demonstrates the extent to which modesty and arrogance are linked with distance. The claims who am I to judge? and how dare you judge me? become questions of how much distance-in time, space, and imagination-is necessary or appropriate for judgment. Sharpe sees Eichmann as an unintentionally ironic demonstration of this feature of human interaction.

Through his careful examination of Arendt's portrait of Adolf Eichmann and the Jewish Central Councils as well as by considering Eichmann in the context of Arendt's other work, Sharpe gives us a book that will be of great interest to scholars, students, and other researchers involved with contemporary political theory and Holocaust Studies.

List of contents

Introduction
The Man in the Glass Booth
Speech and the Public Realm
Modesty and Individual Responsibility
Arrogance in Judgment
A Duty of Annoyance
Understanding and Representative Thinking
A Choice of Company
Bibliography
Index

About the author

BARRY SHARPE is Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at Northwestern College. Professor Sharpe, who concentrates on Tocqueville and Arendt, has taught at Georgia Southern University as well.

Product details

• Authors: Barry Sharpe, Sharpe Barry
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.05.1999
• EAN: 9780275964030
• ISBN: 978-0-275-96403-0
• No. of pages: 192
• Weight: 482 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); Israel, PHILOSOPHY / Epistemology, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Middle Eastern, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, Political science & theory, Jewish Studies, Political science and theory, Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge, Relating to Jewish people and groups, Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge, Social groups: religious groups and communities, Politics, Law, and Government