Hannah Arendt on evil: what can we learn from her today? - with Marci Shore

Jun 20, 2025

Marci Shore, an expert on 20th-century European intellectual history and Hannah Arendt, discusses the timeless concept of evil against today's background of war and suffering in Ukraine. They explore Arendt's thoughts on moral responsibility, the banality of evil, and how systemic violence dehumanizes individuals. Shore emphasizes the irreplaceability of human dignity in today’s totalitarian contexts and advocates for active civic engagement as a source of hope and resilience during dark times.

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INSIGHT

Radical Evil Erases Subjectivity

Hannah Arendt defines radical evil as making people superfluous and erasing their subjectivity.
Totalitarianism aims to destroy individuality in both victims and executioners.

INSIGHT

Banality of Evil Explained

Banality of evil illustrates evil as ordinary bureaucracy and failure to think.
Eichmann exemplified this as an unthinking bureaucrat executing horrific crimes.

INSIGHT

Connecting Radical and Banality Evil

Banality of evil is just one form; radical evil includes the broader ideology erasing individuals.
Eichmann saw himself as replaceable, a cog in a larger machine, lacking personal responsibility.

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Some might argue that the concept of evil is outdated in our relativistic age. And yet—how can we speak of war crimes, cruelty, or the neglect of human dignity without invoking the word evil? Perhaps it’s time to take it seriously again, to revisit the thinkers who have grappled with its meaning. One of them, of course, is Hannah Arendt. This is a conversation about Hannah Arendt and the concept of evil, which took place in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, on June 1st, at the Kyiv Book Arsenal—one of the country’s major literary events. Despite the ongoing war, the fair was full of people. My guest was Marci Shore, an American intellectual, historian, and university professor. She specializes in 20th-century European intellectual history, with a particular focus on Hannah Arendt. This year, Marci co-curated the Kyiv Book Arsenal’s focus topic, alongside Oksana Forostyna. My name is Volodymyr Yermolenko. I’m a Ukrainian philosopher, the editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and the president of PEN Ukraine. UkraineWorld is an English language media outlet about Ukraine run by Internews Ukraine, one of the country’s leading media NGOs. *** You can support our work at https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld Your support is vital, as we increasingly rely on crowdfunding. Even a small monthly donation can make a big difference. You can also help fund our regular volunteer trips to Ukraine’s front-line areas, where we provide aid to both soldiers and civilians—mainly by delivering vehicles for the military and books for local communities. To support these efforts, you can donate via PayPal at ukraine.resisting@gmail.com. *** Contents: 00:00 Intro 01:18 Support our work 04:44 Why is Hannah Arendt essential to understanding the 20th and 21st centuries? 06:16 What is Hannah Arendt's concept of 'radical evil'? 07:48 How are people made superfluous? 10:12 How has World War II shaped Arendt’s thought? 17:17 From “radical evil” to the “banality of evil”: connecting Arendt’s key concepts. 26:34 Marci Shore on the current situation in America 30:46 Thoughts on human dignity 32:14 Is the idea that 'everyone is replaceable' starting to repeat itself? 34:49 Why Sartre’s idea of “nothingness” might be dangerous? 42:14 Hannah Arendt: vita activa versus vita contemplativa 50:15 Outro