DOI
10.22191/BUUJ/10/2/6
Faculty Sponsor
Daniel Burkett
Abstract
This paper discusses Adolf Eichmann, an infamous figure for his role in the Nazi regime, and the ideas of evil, moral responsibility, and punishment. I argue for a new way of viewing Eichmann by focusing and classifying him as an evil person according to Claudia Card’s theory of evil in her work The Atrocity Paradigm and honing on Eichmann’s role as moral agent and responsible figure. By considering him as such, I contend with ideas and questions regarding his actions, intentions, choices, and motives during the Holocaust, positing him as someone who was a moral agent, can be held morally responsible and thus deserves punishment. I also compare and contrast his moral responsibility to other Nazis detailed in Diana Jeske’s The Evil Within, showing how Eichmann is morally responsible for his evil whereas others are not. While offering the original claim that Eichmann is evil, morally responsible, and deserves punishment, I maintain that due to structural faults with punishment, especially desert-based retributivism, there is no way to punish Eichmann without compromising some of our essential human values, posing a problem for punishing people of extraordinary evil.
Recommended Citation
Rigante, S. (2025). On The Moral Responsibility, Evil, And Punishment of Adolf Eichmann, And Its Implications For Us. Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.22191/BUUJ/10/2/6