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Another Cosmopolitanism
Roger Berkowitz explores Seyla Benhabib’s critique of Hannah Arendt’s skepticism regarding the idea of an International Criminal Court. Benhabib proposes a vision of cosmopolitan justice that transcends national boundaries, asserting that global norms should apply to individuals within a worldwide civil society. This perspective highlights the ongoing tension between global cosmopolitan ideals and the preservation of local, bounded communities, advocating for a dynamic balance between the two.10-06-2024
Articles
The New Progressivism
By Roger BerkowitzGeorge Packer has a long and thoughtful essay about culture wars, meritocracy, and our children. The structure of the essay follows Packer and his wife as they navigate the New York City public and private schools. They pull their son out of an expensive private school to send him to a public school that is 38% white, 29% black, 24% Latino, and 7% Asian, closely representative of the city’s population. But the school is less academically rich than the private school...
09-19-2019
What We're Reading: Wendell Berry
Jedediah Britton-Purdy chronicles the life and work of Wendell Berry in The Nation. Berry’s writing, which won him a National Humanities Medal in 2011, has now been gathered in two volumes. The focus of Berry’s writing which reflects his agricultural lifestyle, has always spoken to larger political issues like environmentalism, violence, and economic inequality.09-17-2019
Sunday Listening: An Interview
With Roger Berkowitz
In advance of the Hannah Arendt Center's 12th Annual Fall Conference, titled "Racism and Antisemitism," Hillary Harvey interviews HAC founder and academic director Roger Berkowitz. 09-14-2019
Literary Prize for Peace
Please join us in congratulating Bard College Professor Nuruddin Farah who has won the 2019 Lee Hochul Literary prize for Peace, awarded in Seoul, South Korea.
09-09-2019
The State Courts Fight Back
By Roger BerkowitzIn June the United States Supreme Court in Rucho v. Common Cause refused to intervene in two cases that considered constitutional challenges to political gerrymandering in North Carolina and Maryland. The Court found the Congressional maps to be “highly partisan, by any measure,” and “blatant examples of partisanship driving districting decisions.” And the Court held...
09-09-2019
What We're Reading:
Politics and Passions
By Samantha Hill
Hannah Arendt was notoriously wary of thinking about the passions in politics. From her critique of Rousseau’s empathy in On Revolution to her letter criticizing James Baldwin for putting forth a notion of political love, Arendt feared these emotions could not create real solidarity. She believed that such feelings were anti-democratic because they turned our capacity to love the many away from the public realm of political action...
09-09-2019
What We're Reading:
The Life and Death of Dignity and Self-Respect
By Roger BerkowitzPeter Baehr, an Arendt Scholar who has been living in Hong Kong for 20 years, writes a first-hand account of the pre-revolutionary situation in Hong Kong. Baehr wisely refuses to say what is the cause of the protests. And he is fatalistically clear that there is no way that the people of Hong Kong will triumph over the enormously power and oppressive Chinese government. And Baehr knows that the protesters know they are engaged in a futile effort. But even so...
09-05-2019
An Appeal, A Denial, and A Letter Published
The following is a letter sent by Alan Sussman to the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Sussman is a trustee of one donor-advised-fund managed by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and he asked the Federation to send $1,000 to a group that opposes Israel's occupation of the West Bank. To his surprise and chagrin, his request to donate his family's money was denied.09-03-2019
What We're Reading
By Samantha HillMike Jay writes about Walter Benjamin and Intoxication and Kathryn M. Rudy offers a startling account of how much it costs to be successful in some fields of academia.
09-01-2019