Mephistopheles
fictional · 2 mentions across 2 readings
In this course
Mephistopheles appears as a literary archetype for sophisticated, aestheticized evil in contrast to the banality Hannah Arendt identified with Eichmann—a figure invoked to distinguish between evil performed with deliberate grandeur versus evil embedded in bureaucratic normalcy. The reading uses this mythological reference to complicate how we understand malevolence in systems and institutions, particularly relevant to discussions of how algorithmic or technological systems can embody harm through either obvious malice or mundane compliance. This matters for the course because it challenges the assumption that dangerous technologies must be deliberately designed as such, rather than emerging from ordinary professional logic.
Mentioned in 2 readings
Appears alongside
People mentioned in the same passages — sorted by co-occurrence weight.