Hannah Arendt and the law and ethics of administration : bureaucratic evil, political thinking and reflective judgment

After the absurd terrorism and violence of the totalitarianism and bureaucratic administrative and legal systems of the 20th century it does not give any meaning to rationalize harm as meaningful evil that even though it is evil may have some importance for the development of the world towards the good. Rather, evil is incomprehensible and as radical and banal evil it challenges human rationality. This is indeed the case when we are faced with instrumental and rationalized administrative and political evil. Therefore, we must analyse the banality of evil in politics and in administration in order to understand the concept of evil. Moreover, as proposed by Hannah Arendt, we need to fight this evil with political thinking and social philosophy. The only way to deal with harm and wrongdoing is to return a concept of responsibility that is closely linked to reflective thinking. In this paper, we will on the basis of a discussion of the banality of evil explore this in relation to Hannah Arendt’s analysis of the administration of evil, as expressed by the personality of Adolf Eichmann. Finally, we will place this concept of administrative evil in Hannah Arendt’s general political philosophy

Canonical Reading of the Old Testament in the Context of Critical Scholarship

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonslectureships/1350/thumbnail.jp

The Old Testament: Jewish and Christian Bible

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonslectureships/1688/thumbnail.jp

Papers from the NSU Summer session of 2014 - study group 3:“Crisis and Crisis Scenarios: Normativity, Possibilities and Dilemmas”

In this special issue we present the conference papers by the study group “Crisis and Crisis Scenarios: Normativity, Possibilities and Dilemmas” at the 2014 NSU Summer Session, held between 24th July and 31st July 2014 in Sauðárkrókur, Northern Iceland

Ethics of Administration:Towards Sustainability and Cosmopolitanism

After the publication of my book Ethics for Psychologists, one reviewer asked the question about whether and when I would write an ethics of public administration.With this suggestion in mind, I proposed a new book to the publisher (DJØF’s forlag – Danish Lawyer’s and Economist’s publishing company) and the publisher accepted. So now the problem is how to formulate an ethics of administration. Indeed, facing the present global crisis and the need for global principles of sustainability and cosmopolitanism it could be argued that public administration ethics should be redefined according to these ethical ideals. As such I would argue that a book about ethics of administration should deal with ethical theories and principles and dilemmas of public administration in public organizations and institutions, i.e. state, regional and municipal administrations and bureaucracies, including ethical dimensions of the work of courts, police and military. A presentation of ethics of administration should also look at problems and dilemmas in different types of more or less public organizations and institutions

The importance of responsibility in times of crisis

In this paper I would like to show the importance of the concept of responsibility as the foundation of ethics in times of crisis in particular in the fields of politics and economics in the modern civilisation marked by globalization and technological progres. I consider the concept of responsibility as the key notion in order to understand the ethical duty in a modern technological civilisation. We can indeed observe a moralization of the concept of responsibility going beyond a strict legal definition in terms of imputability. The paper begins by discussing the humanistic foundations of such a concept of responsibility. It treats the historical origins of responsibility and it relates this concept to the concept of accountability. On the basis of this historical determination of the concept I would like to present the definition of the concept of responsibility as fundamental ethical principle that has increasing importance as the foundation of the principles of governance in modern welfare states. In this context the paper discusses the extension of the concept of responsibility towards institutional or corporate responsibility where responsibility does not only concerns the responsibility of individuals but also deals with the responsibility of institutional collectivities. In this way the paper is based on the following structure : 1) The ethical foundation of the concept of responsibility 2) Responsibility in technological civilisation 3) Political responsibility for good governance in the welfare state 4) Social responsibility of business corporations in times of globalization 5) Conclusion and discussion : changed conditions of responsibility in modern times

Classical Political Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity:An alternative to the competition State

The conservative Jewish, German and American philosopher Leo Strauss (1899-1973) proposes an interpretation of the causes of the crisis of modernity and argues that the only way in which we can reestablish social stability is to go back to classical political philosophy by Plato and Aristotle. In the following, I will introduce thought of Leo Strauss in order to show how we here can find a well-qualified concept of political conservativism. It is however clear, that this intellectual aristocratism is different from dominant conservative at the political right that also can be accused of having reduced politics to economics and utility maximization where focus is on promotion of personal privileges and interests rather than a concern for the common good in a strong political community

Dømmekraftens historiske ansvar - Hannah Arendt og vores opfattelse af Holocaust

Holocaust og totalitarismens ondskab er omdrejningspunktet for denne artikel. Hannah Arendts værker og særligt Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil fra 1964 bliver her læst som et bidrag til vores forståelse af, hvordan nutidens demokratiske samfund kan lære af fortiden for at undgå en gentagelse af Holocaust og totalitarismens forbrydelser. I forlængelse heraf argumenteres der for, at et demokratisk samfund bør have en selvkritisk og ansvarlig holdning til historien, og at det derfor er nødvendigt at holde erindringen om Holocaust levende i vores historie. Hannah Arendts påvisning af ondskabens banalitet hos Eichmann bliver i denne sammenhæng fremhævet som et af de mest fremragende bidrag til Holocaustforskningen