Philosophy 190

This seminar will focus on Hannah Arendt’s later, more philosophical writings. We will analyze her understanding of action, speech, and language, as they relate to her conception of the ‘political’ understood as ‘the common space of appearance’. Only within the dynamic intangible ‘web’ of human relationships can we disclose ourselves as distinct and unique. Moreover, the revelatory quality of action and speech can show itself only in true togetherness as outlined in Arendt’s major work The Human condition

Though initially the emphasis is on action and speech in their revolutionary potential as ‘new beginnings’ within a participatory political context, Arendt also worked out key concepts such as freedom, will, responsibility, and truth within their wider historical and philosophical horizons. Especially the role of thinking and the capacity for judgment moved center stage in her phenomenological analysis of a life increasingly endangered by ‘world and (technological) earth-alienation’, totalitarianism, violence, and last not least ‘the banality’ of evil: Amor mundi (love of the world) needs ‘thinking without banisters’ as much as reflective judgment based upon a sensus communis if despair is not to outrun hope, especially in ‘dark’ or ‘crisis’ stricken times. Thus thinking, willing, and our capacity for judging figure prominently in her later renowned guest lectures, essays, and the (unfinished) posthumously published The Life of the Mind.

Seminar discussions will build on a (selective) close reading of these later works and some of Arendt’s most influential shorter essays. But we will also analyze the impact of other philosophers on Arendt’s thinking, including Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein.

As taught this semester, Phil 190 may satisfy the more inclusive history requirement (which is: 153, 155, 156A, 160-188)

Required texts:

– Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, enlarged 2nd edition 2018, University of Chicago Press, (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-0-226-58660-1.

– Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind, 1981 (paperback, one volume edition) Harcourt ISBN-13: 978-0-15-651992-2

Recommended:

Hannah Arendt and Ronald Beiner, Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy (paperback) 1989, University of Chicago Press, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0226025957

These texts (and other shorter essays) will also be made available online—if possible—via the UC Berkeley Library or via bCourses.