Introduction

In this chapter I develop an alternative conception of judgment that is embodied rather than merely rationalist. I call such a conception embodied reflective judgment, which implies that both thinking and feeling are important for making critical judgments. Rather than just being concerned with judgment in general, the emphasis is on both thinking and feeling for the purposes of nonidentity, that is, effectively resisting power in both capitalism and fascism.

To develop the idea of embodied reflective judgment I discuss Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem in which she documents and analyzes the NS trial of Eichmann (Arendt 1963), as well as her other work on responsibility and judgment. I also draw on Theodor W. Adorno's Guilt and Defense, which examines the remnants of fascist ideology in group discussions with post-war Germans (Adorno 2010), and his broader works on fascism and capitalism. Arendt and Adorno were both forced into exile by the Nazis, and both aimed to comprehend in their respective political philosophies the disasters they faced. Nonetheless, these thinkers are rarely brought in conversation with each other.

One reason for this is their theoretical differences. Whereas Adorno combines psychoanalytic and Marxist thought to understand the ills of fascism and capitalism, Arendt often rejects these thought traditions and combines phenomenology with a reading of classical texts to do the same. Another theoretical difference is their conceptualizations of how thinking relates to feeling. For Arendt, feeling is not political and exists apart from thinking. In contrast, Adorno explains the ways in which thinking and feeling are entangled with each other, which is why his thought offers more room for conceptualizing embodied reflective judgment than Arendt's thought.

In several places throughout Arendt's work, including her personal correspondence, she draws definite distinctions between feeling and thinking. She makes clear in her writings that feelings, even guilt, belong to the private sphere and have nothing to do with judgment.