Thinking in Dark Times
THINKING IN DARK TIMES: HANNAH ARENDT ON ETHICS AND POLITICS, Roger Berkowitz, Jeffrey Katz, & Thomas Keenan, eds., Fordham University Press, 2009
13 Pages Posted: 25 Jan 2009
Date Written: January 24, 2009
Abstract
Hannah Arendt is recognized as one of the most important political theorists of the 20th century. This paper, however, suggests that she is as much a thinker as a theorist. Against the professionalized discourse of political theory that offers theories of democracy, citizenship, and liberalism, Arendt insists that political thinking is of more importance that political theory. The force of Arendt's political insight is that we court danger when we take thinking for granted. Against the worship of reason and rationalized calculation that dominates political discourse, Arendt holds up an idea of thinking that sets up obstacles to hasty and thoughtless action. The paper develops Arendt's particular articulation of what it calls Arendt's activity of thinking.
Keywords: Arendt, Socrates, Jaspers, dark times, thinking, Brecht, gore, thinking, reason, heidegger, lesser evil
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