Thoughtlessness and resentment: Determinism and moral responsibility in the case of Adolf Eichmann
Abstract
Is a devoted Nazi or a zombie bureaucrat a greater moral and political problem? Because
the dangers of immoral fanaticism are so clear, the dangers of mindless bureaucracy
are easy to overlook. Yet zombie bureaucrats have contributed substantially to the
greatest catastrophes of the 20th century, doing so seemingly oblivious to the monstrous
qualities of their actions. Hannah Arendt's work on thoughtlessness raises a dilemma:
if Eichmann, the architect of the Nazi Final Solution, truly was a thoughtless 'cog',
lacking in intentionality, can one really hold him morally accountable for the evil
qualities of his acts? This article relates Arendt's 'thought' and Strawson's and
Bilgrami's discussion of 'reactive attitudes' and Sartre's concept of 'bad faith'.
To find a basis for moral accountable in seemingly thoughtless cases like Eichmann's.
Although Arendt's Eichmann is an extreme example, finding a basis to hold him accountable
is valuable because 'little Eichmanns' will persist as long as impersonal forces structure
and depress reactive attitudes. © The Author(s) 2014.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18174Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1177/0191453713518323Publication Info
Schupmann, Benjamin (2014). Thoughtlessness and resentment: Determinism and moral responsibility in the case of
Adolf Eichmann. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 40(2). pp. 127-144. 10.1177/0191453713518323. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18174.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Benjamin Schupmann
Assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke Kunshan University

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