As always, nice post. I love the more didactic approach of this one.
Well, that’s an interesting perspective, but I’m not sure I buy it. It seems to me that if you could not stand to live with yourself if you were a murderer or a crook or what have you, then you’re already most of the way to benevolence before you start “thinking.” But how do you acquire this idea that being locked in internal intimacy with a wrongdoer is so awful — especially when all you have to do to avoid it is to sink into the luxurious bliss of not-thinking?
My reason for not being convinced is that a lot of bad decisions appear to be made so fast that there is no way to “think” in Arendt’s sense before the deed is done. And if you think afterwards, then you’re already living with a terrible person (from your point of view). So it’s not that costly anymore to do bad things even consciously.
As always, nice post. I love the more didactic approach of this one.
My reason for not being convinced is that a lot of bad decisions appear to be made so fast that there is no way to “think” in Arendt’s sense before the deed is done. And if you think afterwards, then you’re already living with a terrible person (from your point of view). So it’s not that costly anymore to do bad things even consciously.