‘Amor Mundi’ Threatened? War and the ‘Darkness of the Human Heart’

Desiree Verweij

doi:10.54195/HSOV8373

‘Amor Mundi’ Threatened? War and the ‘Darkness of the Human Heart’

Authors

Desiree Verweij

Radboud University and Netherlands Defense Academy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54195/HSOV8373_CH13

Synopsis

Desiree Verweij, in her chapter “‘Amor Mundi’ Threatened? War and the ‘Darkness of the Human Heart,’” discusses what Hannah Arendt’s concept of thinking means in a military context, as opposed to thoughtlessness in a military context, of which Eichmann, according to Arendt, was an infamous example. His inability to think will be contrasted with the ability to think of the – almost unknown – American soldier John Glenn Gray, as discussed in his book The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle (1959), to which Arendt wrote a laudatory introduction. What did this mean in the context Gray found himself in? And what does this mean regarding Arendt’s concept of “amor mundi,” as the love and responsibility for a common world? Doesn’t the deployment of military means, which, by definition, makes room for the destructive forces of the “homo furens”, as Gray suggests, threaten this “amor mundi”?

Author Biography

Desiree Verweij, Radboud University and Netherlands Defense Academy

Desiree Verweij is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Ethics at the Netherlands Defense Academy and the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Her research is on both fundamental and applied ethics and concerns themes like “moral judgment”, “responsibility”, “human rights”, and the Just War tradition. Some of her recent publications are: “On ‘Caritas’ and the Promise of ‘Right Intent.’ Back to the Roots of Justice in War” (2019), “Mores Fare and the Resilience Paradox. Ethics as the Terra Incognita of Hybrid Warfare,” In Violence in Extreme Conditions: Ethical Challenges in Military Practice, edited by E. Kramer and T. Molendijk. Springer 2023 (published on the occasion of her retirement as Professor of Philosophy and Ethics). The last book she co-edited and contributed to was Ethics and Military Practice, published in both Dutch (Boom 2020) and English (Brill 2022).