9 HANNAH ARENDT The Political Philosopher

The Political Philosopher by Dimitri Laspas

Growing up in the 1st half of the 20th century in Kaliningrad and Berlin, she experienced life through totalitarianism in two forms; Stalinism and Nazism.

She obtained her doctorate in philosophy writing on Love and Saint Augustine at the University of Heidelberg in 1929 under the direction of the great existentialist philosopher, Karl Jaspers.

Arendt was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 for collecting antiSemitic research propaganda and briefly sent to prison. She was stripped of her German citizenship in 1937 after fleeing to France where she helped young Jews to immigrate to Palestine. She eventually left for the USA via Portugal in 1941. She became an American citizen in 1950.

She held a number of academic positions at various American universities until her sudden death in 1975 of a heart attack aged 69. She is best known for 2 works that had a major impact on the academic community and the world at large.

The first, ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’, published in 1951, was a study of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes that generated a wide-ranging debate on the nature and historical experiences of the totalitarian phenomenon.

This cemented her reputation as a thinker and writer and a series of influential works followed.

The second most famous work was ‘The Human Condition’ in 1958, an original philosophical study that investigated the fundamental categories of labour, work, action.

At the time of her death, she had completed the first 2 volumes of her last major philosophical work, ‘The Life of the Mind’, which examined the 3 fundamental faculties of thinking, willing, judging.

She is commemorated by many aspiring institutions and journals. The creation of the annual Hannah Arendt Prize was designed to “to honour individuals who identify critical and unseen aspects of current political events and who are not afraid to enter the public realm by presenting their opinion in controversial political discussions.” She has also been recognised on stamps, street names and schools. Her work has seen a big resurgence in recent years.