The “banality of evil” is certainly the most discussed moral notion since its appearance in Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963), and has since become fundamental to understanding extreme events in dark times. However, the concept’s contours were poorly outlined in the author’s work, which contributed, along with the controversy it caused, to it becoming almost commonplace to refer to the spread of evil in the world. The book that is the subject of this lecture (Adriano Correia,  A Banalidade do Mal [The Banality of Evil], Ed. 70, 2025) was designed to be useful for anyone interested in the meaning of evil in general and the banality of evil in particular. Its conception is based on an effort to write clearly, albeit about intricate issues that would be trivialised if not dealt with in their own complexity, conceptual or simply tragic. This is a fundamental theme for understanding ethical and political evil in our times.

The presentation will include a presentation of the work by the author, followed by comments from Cristiano Gianolla (CES) whose research focuses on analysing extreme-right movements. Moderator: Jonas Van Vossole (CES)

Bio notes

Adriano Correia
Adriano Correia is a full professor of ethics and political philosophy at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), and works on the postgraduate programmes in Philosophy and Performing Arts at UFG, as well as being a guest professor on the Postgraduate Programme in Law at USP. PhD in philosophy (Unicamp/2002), with post-doctoral research at the Freie Universität Berlin (2011, Political Science), The New School (New York, 2017, Philosophy) and the University of São Paulo (Law School, 2023-2024). Professor and visiting researcher at several foreign universities (Germany, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, United States of America, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Venezuela), with research in the areas of political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of art and philosophy of law. President of the Cerrado regional section of the Brazilian Kant Society (2024-2026). Member of the Ibero-American Association of Political Philosophy and director (vocal) of the Inter-American Society of Philosophy (2019-2024). He was twice president of the National Association for Postgraduate Studies in Philosophy (2017-2020). He is the author, among others, of Hannah Arendt (Zahar, 2007) and O Caso Eichmann: Hannah Arendt e as Controvérsias Jurídicas sobre o Julgamento [The Eichmann Case: Hannah Arendt and the Legal Controversies over the Trial] (Ed. 70, 2023). He is also the translator of various texts by and about Hannah Arendt.

Cristiano Gianolla
Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra (UC), where he is part of the Research Group Democracy, Justice and Human Rights. He has a degree in philosophy and a PhD in Sociology and Political Science (cum Laude, Coimbra and Roma-Sapienza) through a dissertation on Gandhi's democratic theory and a comparative study of emerging political parties in India and Italy. Cristiano is the Principal Investigator of the UNPOP project (FCT, 2021-2025) on emotions, populism and the extreme-right. He is the coordinator of the doctoral course “Democratic Theories and Institutions” and the master's course “Critical Intercultural Dialogue” at the UC Faculty of Economics, where he also teaches on the doctoral course “State, Democracy and Legal Pluralism”. His publications include books, chapters and articles he has authored and organised on democratic theory, populism, emotion, narrative, post-colonialism, intercultural dialogue, citizenship and migration.

Jonas Van Vossole
Individual FCT-CEEC researcher at CES-UC, PhD in Political Science and member of ECOSOC at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. He holds a master's degree in Political Science and a master's degree in General Economics, both from Ghent University, complemented by a postgraduate programme in Advanced Studies of Democracy in the 21st Century, at the University of Coimbra. Van Vossole’s area of interest includes the study of democracy, social movements, social protest, critical political science, political ecology and political economy. His doctoral research focussed on the influence of the euro crisis on democratic legitimacy. His current research combines a continuation of the critical approach to democratic theory adopted in his doctoral research with perspectives from labour environmentalism. The approach is inspired by the reincorporation of Rosa Luxemburg's perspective on imperialism as a relationship between Capital and Nature and Van Vossole’s approach to the mass strike in relation to trade unions and prefigurative politics. Jonas is co-coordinator of the Ecology and Society Lab (ECOSOC) at CES and co-coordinator for Centro region of Portugal’s Political Economy Association. He is a member of the Observatories for Living and Working Conditions (OCVT-UNL) and Violence (UECE).