Since Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), Hannah Arendt changes her previous idea of "radical evil" into that of the "banality of evil". This view, however, wouldn't have been possible if she hadn't developed an original idea of humanitas since the fourties/fifties. This idea embodies a theory of feelings and passions which is likely to appear striking in the thinker of the vita activa. It is in the humanization of emotional life that Arendt sees the only viable way to oppose the breakdown of morality that affected the whole european society during the nazi years.