Sympathy for the Devil: Evil, Social Process, and Intelligibility

Adolph Eichmann's deceptions and crimes are emblematic of an attempted disguise of evil and the consequences of the absence of empathy (i.e., Arendt's “thoughtlessness”), for understanding the world and constructing “reality.” Both relativistic and absolutist approaches to evil are rejected in recognition that the themes that define evil are not only ambiguous and contradictory, but also entangled with each other. Eichmann's crimes are viewed in different contexts which, when contrasted, clarify evil as reciprocally located in individual and social processes. “Evil” emerges as a conceptual framework for making the world intelligible and a source of meaning. It involves both a construction of and assault on reality. Evil acts become comprehensible only within the web of beliefs in which they occur. The imbrication of ideology and deception as cause and effects of evil become evident as the “banality of evil” is contrasted with “radical evil.”