HannahArendt.net (E-Journal)
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Günther Anders: Der Emigrant. Mit Nachwort von Florian Grosser. München: Beck 2021. : „Zur Vielheit verurteilt“
No full textDer Essay „Der Emigrant“ des Philosophen und Schriftstellers Günther Anders erschien erstmals 1962 in der Zeitschrift Merkur. 2021 wurde er nun von dem C.H. Beck Verlag neu verlegt und mit einem umfassenden Nachwort des Philosophen Florian Grosser versehen. Dass dieser Text wieder veröffentlicht wurde überrascht angesichts seiner beinahe beklemmenden Aktualität nicht. Anders geht darin einer grundlegenden Frage zu dem Themenkomplex Migration und Flucht nach: Was macht es mit dem eigenen Selbstund Weltverhältnis, wenn äußere, gewaltvolle Umständen einen Menschen dazu zwingen, sein vertrautes Umfeld zu verlassen, staatliche Grenzen zu überschreiten und sich in einem neuen Land wiederzufinden? Er behandelt in diesem kurzen, aber gehaltvollen Text also die Erfahrungen von Flucht und Exil, wenngleich er selbst hauptsächlich von Migration spricht. Darüber schreibt er vor dem Hintergrund seiner eigenen Erfahrung als verfolgter Jude, der 1933 aus dem nationalsozialistischen Deutschland nach Frankreich, später in die USA geflohen ist
Hannah Arendt: Eichmann in Jerusalem. Ein Bericht von der Banalität des Bösen, aus dem amerikanischen Englisch von Brigitte Granzow, hrsg. von Thomas Meyer, mit einem Nachwort von Helmut König, erweiterte Neuausgabe, München: Piper 2022.: Zurück zu Hannah Arendts Werk. Die gelungene Studienausgabe von Eichmann in Jerusalem
No full textNach fast siebzig Jahren hat Helmut König, emeritierter Professor für Politikwissenschaft an der RWTH Aachen, Hannah Arendts Eichmann in Jerusalem anlässlich der Studienausgabe wiedergelesen und ein Nachwort verfasst. In seiner ReLektüre gelingt es ihm, durch die vielen Schichten von Interpretation und Teilinterpretation, die dieses Werk seit seiner Erstveröffentlichung 1963 überlagern, zu dessen ursprünglichem Text hindurchzudringen, das Original wieder freizulegen. Er stellt – so der Titel des Nachworts – „ein faszinierendes Buch und zählebige Missverständnisse“ vor, handelt von – so der Untertitel – „Hannah Arendt über Eichmann, das Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit und die Gerechtigkeit“. Sein Nachwort ist, ohne Übertreibung, eine Sensation in der Rezeptionsgeschichte dieses mehr kritisierten, kommentierten als gelesenen Werkes
Arendt’s Post-dualist Approach to Nature: the Plurality of Animals
No full textArendt’s approach to the human-animal distinction shows a clear change from The Human Condition to The Life of the Mind. The two most consequential markers of that change are the concepts of world and plurality. In The Human Condition Arendt tends to distinguish world as the artificial dwelling place of human beings from nature as the realm of living beings. Even though humans and animals are both living beings and creatures of nature, the implication is that making and having a world is what characterizes humans rather than animals. In The Life of the Mind however, Arendt writes that human being and animals are both worldly creatures. With respect to plurality, the change is more evident. Whereas Arendt, in The Human Condition, introduces plurality as one of the human conditions and proceeds to define it as a specifically human achievement, she extends plurality to all living creatures in The Life of the Mind.
In this article I will reconstruct Arendt’s reconsideration of the human-animal distinction. I will argue that three themes in The Life of the Mind make the reconsideration of the distinction and the adjustment of the concepts of world and plurality necessary, namely the deconstruction of metaphysical fallacies, the introduction of a phenomenological ontology and the influence of Portmann’s phenomenology of animals. With this reconstruction I want to join the growing reception of Arendt as a thinker who offers important resources to ecological thought, in this case, with original reflections on resemblances and distinctions of humans and animals.Arendt’s approach to the human-animal distinction shows a clear change from The Human Condition to The Life of the Mind. The two most consequential markers of that change are the concepts of world and plurality. In The Human Condition Arendt tends to distinguish world as the artificial dwelling place of human beings from nature as the realm of living beings. Even though humans and animals are both living beings and creatures of nature, the implication is that making and having a world is what characterizes humans rather than animals. In The Life of the Mind however, Arendt writes that human being and animals are both worldly creatures. With respect to plurality, the change is more evident. Whereas Arendt, in The Human Condition, introduces plurality as one of the human conditions and proceeds to define it as a specifically human achievement, she extends plurality to all living creatures in The Life of the Mind.
In this article I will reconstruct Arendt’s reconsideration of the human-animal distinction. I will argue that three themes in The Life of the Mind make the reconsideration of the distinction and the adjustment of the concepts of world and plurality necessary, namely the deconstruction of metaphysical fallacies, the introduction of a phenomenological ontology and the influence of Portmann’s phenomenology of animals. With this reconstruction I want to join the growing reception of Arendt as a thinker who offers important resources to ecological thought, in this case, with original reflections on resemblances and distinctions of humans and animals
Juliane Rebentisch: Der Streit um Pluralität, Auseinandersetzungen mit Hannah Arendt, Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag 2022.: Im Streit mit Hannah Arendt
No full textEs gibt bekanntlich zwei Texte von Hannah Arendt, die immer wieder kontrovers diskutiert werden und welche die Emotionen hoch kochen lassen. Der eine ist Arendts Gerichtsbericht über die Verurteilung von Adolf Eichmann, der im Buch „Eichmann in Jerusalem“ zusammengefasst wurde. Der andere ist der Essay „Reflections on Little Rock“ mit dem Arendt sich im Winter 1958/59 in die rassistische Segregationspolitik der USA einmischt und sich gegen eine gesetzlich verordnete Aufhebung der Rassentrennung in Schulen ausspricht. Beide Texte wurden harsch kritisiert. Das Eichmann Buch beschädigte Arendts Reputation nachhaltig und zerstörte Freundschaften. Dennoch hat Arendt zu keiner Zeit ihre darin formulierten Thesen widerrufen. Anders sieht das im Falle von „Little Rock“ aus. Hier gesteht sie sieben Jahre nach der Veröffentlichung einen fundamentalen Fehler ein. Sie schreibt dem schwarzen Schriftsteller Ralph Waldo Ellison einen zwanzigzeiligen Brief, der als Durchschlag in der Washingtoner Library of Congress aufbewahrt wird und nun auch digital einsehbar ist. Anlass war ein Interview, das Ellison dem Journalisten Robert Penn Warren für sein Buch „Who Speaks for the Negro?“ (1965) gegeben hatte, indem er Arendt ein Unverständnis für das „Ideal des Opfers“ der schwarzen Bevölkerung vorwirft, dass diese täglich in den USA bringen müssen. Arendt bestätigt das knapp: „Sie haben völlig Recht […] ich wusste immer, dass ich irgendwie falsch lag, und hatte das Gefühl, ich hatte die nackte Gewalt, die elementare körperliche Angst nicht begriffen. Aber ihre Bemerkungen scheinen mir so zu treffend, dass ich jetzt erkenne, dass ich die Komplexität der Lage schlicht nicht verstanden habe“. Dieses bemerkenswerte Eingeständnis ist der Ausgang der siebzehn Exkursionen zur „Komplexität der Lage“, die Marie Luise Knott in ihrem jüngsten Buch zu Arendt, Ellison und dem Rassismus in den USA unternommen hat
Kei Hiruta: Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin: Freedom, Politics and Humanity, Princeton University Press 2021. : Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin: Freedom, Politics and Humanity, by Kei Hiruta.
No full textThe first thing to notice about Kei Hiruta’s monograph is that it is not a partisan book. The second is that it is one of those works that, while including the historical itinerary, also covers the philosophical debate that runs through it. Kei Hiruta’s research is thus, located at the intersection of political philosophy and intellectual history. The present monograph is the outcome of his project entitled “Berlin’s Bête Noire: Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin on Freedom, Politics, and Humanity” which chronicles the intellectual, political, and personal conflict between Arendt and Berlin. Hiruta has also edited the book Arendt on Freedom, Liberation, and Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Here, the author delves into the idea of freedom and totalitarianism as points of disagreement and agreement between two giants of twentieth-century thought. He thus elaborates a concise and essential document of political theory.The first thing to notice about Kei Hiruta’s monograph is that it is not a partisan book. The second is that it is one of those works that, while including the historical itinerary, also covers the philosophical debate that runs through it. Kei Hiruta’s research is thus, located at the intersection of political philosophy and intellectual history. The present monograph is the outcome of his project entitled “Berlin’s Bête Noire: Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin on Freedom, Politics, and Humanity” which chronicles the intellectual, political, and personal conflict between Arendt and Berlin. Hiruta has also edited the book Arendt on Freedom, Liberation, and Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Here, the author delves into the idea of freedom and totalitarianism as points of disagreement and agreement between two giants of twentieth-century thought. He thus elaborates a concise and essential document of political theory
Workshop report on The Phenomenology of Refuge and Belonging.: Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany on 4th July 2022.
Full text linkRefuge and belonging are lived conditions that have always carried great significance and require greater attention than ever. In vexed contexts of populisms and ever hardening national borders that have given impetus to embolden a visible and vocal rightwing politics, it is therefore critical to rethink how refuge manifests. Indeed, these developments demonstrate in a rather blunt manner the danger of objectification of refuge and notions of belonging. Hence, this workshop was an attempt to radically rethinkrefuge and move beyond its emergency-centric conception to begin creating narratives to counter this politics through a critical phenomenology and restore the individual to the centre of these problematics and shift the tenor of present debates.Refuge and belonging are lived conditions that have always carried great significance and require greater attention than ever. In vexed contexts of populisms and ever hardening national borders that have given impetus to embolden a visible and vocal rightwing politics, it is therefore critical to rethink how refuge manifests. Indeed, these developments demonstrate in a rather blunt manner the danger of objectification of refuge and notions of belonging. Hence, this workshop was an attempt to radically rethink refuge and move beyond its emergency-centric conception to begin creating narratives to counter this politics through a critical phenomenology and restore the individual to the centre of these problematics and shift the tenor of present debates
Rodowick. D. N., An Education in Judgment: Hannah Arendt and the Humanities.: Rodowick. D. N., An Education in Judgment: Hannah Arendt and the Humanities. Chicago University Press 2021, 182 p., 34.39 EUR.
No full textIn this short and elegantly written book, the philosopher D. N. Rodowick lays out reasons why Hannah Arendt’s writings can revitalize ideas about the importance of philosophical thinking and reasoning to the humanities. The book consists of a preface and six interconnected essays. The essay form was one that Arendt was also fond of, as her favourite collection of her own writings, Between Past and Future, illustrates. So it was good to see someone adopting this style of writing in a full-length monograph. What I liked most about this finely-argued book was the author’s concentration on some of Arendt’s lesser-studied works. There is a close reading of her essay “The Crisis of Culture,” a particular favourite of mine. Rodowick maintains that this essay sums up some of Arendt’s main arguments in The Human Condition. As well, as discussing her lectures on Kant, we have a thoughtful reading of her lecture on “Philosophy and Politics”, which shows her engagement with Platonic and Socratic thought. This concentration on some of Arendt’s lesser-known works is a strength of this collection.Chicago University Press 2021, 182 p., 34.39 EUR
Freedom, Earth, World: An Arendtian Eco-politics of Dissent
Full text linkThis article draws upon Arendt offering a phenomenological defence of democratic freedom and the right to dissent. There are, broadly speaking, three parts to the paper. The first part investigates the distinction between the artificiality of the world and materiality of the earth (that cannot be entirely separated) which has important consequences for her discussion of alienation. Therefore, under an Arendtian diagnosis, as we seek to rebalance human life on the planet, we may also need to re-acquaint ourselves with the complex space that constitutes the common world. The second part concentrates on Arendt’s descriptions of the world which are underscored by a sense of distance which both relates and separates members. The third part connects this phenomenology of world to Arendt’s more explicitly political works. By looking at its relationship to her notion of freedom, I propose a reading of the concept which emphasises the role of dissent, as a key element of her understanding of political intersubjectivity. Within the context of environmentalist politics, this account can be used to critique the tendency to reduce politics to a techne; which may resist both romantic calls for an organic return to nature, or promises to technologically liberate humankind from the limitations prescribed by our planetary condition.This article draws upon Arendt offering a phenomenological defence of democratic freedom and the right to dissent. There are, broadly speaking, three parts to the paper. The first part investigates the distinction between the artificiality of the world and materiality of the earth (that cannot be entirely separated) which has important consequences for her discussion of alienation. Therefore, under an Arendtian diagnosis, as we seek to rebalance human life on the planet, we may also need to re-acquaint ourselves with the complex space that constitutes the common world. The second part concentrates on Arendt’s descriptions of the world which are underscored by a sense of distance which both relates and separates members. The third part connects this phenomenology of world to Arendt’s more explicitly political works. By looking at its relationship to her notion of freedom, I propose a reading of the concept which emphasises the role of dissent, as a key element of her understanding of political intersubjectivity. Within the context of environmentalist politics, this account can be used to critique the tendency to reduce politics to a techne; which may resist both romantic calls for an organic return to nature, or promises to technologically liberate humankind from the limitations prescribed by our planetary condition