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Common Core For Social Justice?: Arendtian Critical Thinking And The Common Core State Standards, Chandler Bain Meyer

Master's Theses

Through Hannah Arendt’s inspection of Adolf Eichmann, her studies of Kant’s political philosophy, and Life of the Mind she examines what it means to think critically and deconstructs the taken-for-granted action of thought. This paper is premised by the same guiding question as Arendt asks herself: Could thinking be a condition that makes people abstain from committing injustice or be conditioned against it? Arendt, clearly building on Kant, certainly thought it is probable; suggesting that Eichmann was not purely wicked or laced with stupidity, but the “macabre comedy” he landed a starring role in was a result of simple thoughtlessness. …