ESSAY QUESTION
Hannah Arendt agreed with the verdict that Eichmann was guilty and that he should hang. And yet she disagreed with all reasoning on display in the trial, whether it was from the prosecution, the defence, or the judges. Given the problems that Arendt identifies with the trial, some may wonder whether it would have not been preferable to simply settle matters outside the courts. As Arendt points out, instead of capturing Eichmann and flying him to Israel, the Israeli agents could have killed him right then and there in the streets of Buenos Aires (ep:15). Still, despite all the problems with the trial, Arendt also disagrees with any such extra-legal solution to the Eichmann case. On the contrary, she makes her view clear by the end of her book that, despite the profound flaws with the trial, it was nonetheless utterly vital for the future of humanity that the Eichmann trial took place.
How do you make sense of Arendts position? Why have a trial if it becomes a show or ritual that rubber stamps a verdict that everyone is convinced of from the very start? How do you think through Arendts view that the future of humanity depends on holding trials to prosecute crimes against humanity?
Start your paper with 1-2 paragraphs that cover the following:
First, in your own words (around 100-150 words), briefly explicate and clarify the problem raised in the question.
Second, state your thesis in bold. As stated in the essay instructions, a thesis is a single (unitary), specific, informed and meaningful insight that responds to the essay question or problem. This should be one sentence.
Third, in around 100 words or so, state how your thesis addresses the problem raised in the question.
Finally, briefly outline the steps you will take to explicate and develop your thesis.
Essay instructions
The essay questions, when and where to submit
The final section (topic) of every module on the website is reserved for everything to do with the essay assignment for that module. Submit your essays in this section. For all deadlines, please see the Deadlines chart in Appendix IV below.
What material to use for your essay
1. Primary sources: Course readings. All essays on this course are on the course readings of the module. Your points must be supported by direct quotes, paraphrases, and summaries of the course readings.
2. Secondary sources: Lectures. The essay assignments are on the readings, not my lectures. My lectures are only resources to help you understand the readings and put them in perspective. They are not substitutes for your own independent reading. If you base your essay on my lectures without doing the readings for yourself, you will get both the readings and my lectures wrong. For example, in my lectures I base my analyses and interpretation on a close reading of the text, often by pulling together different pieces of the reading, and then thinking through their connections and implications for understanding law and morality. If you havent done the reading yourself, you will confuse the results of my analysis with the text that I am analyzing. Students who do this often claim that the text says something when in fact it is me who said that after thinking through the text. If you are unable to tell the difference between another persons commentary on a text and the text itself, you do not know either and you will get both of them wrong.
3. Never use sources outside the course. Anything in an essay that is based on outside sources will not count toward the grade. Furthermore, essays that use outside sources will receive a penalty of 25% to 100% depending on how much they rely on those sources. Read as much as you like, but dont use it in your essay if it is not on the syllabus for the course.
Length
Essays should be 6-8 double-spaced pages (2000-2400 words) in length, excluding title and bibliography. Your goal in each essay is to tie together insightfully the readings in a given module in response to the problem raised in the essay question. You will need space to do this adequately. If you need an extra page or two, that is fine.
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