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    JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times Conference poster

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Amor Mundi

The weekly newsletter of the Hannah Arendt Center
What is most difficult, writes Arendt, is to love the world as it is. Loving the world means neither uncritical acceptance nor contemptuous rejection, but the unwavering facing up to and comprehension of that which is. The opinions expressed in essays on our site are those of their authors.

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About

About

Amor Mundi (for love of the world) is an exploration of Arendtian topics delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning. This includes deep dives into the works of Hannah Arendt and the implications of her ideas on the world today. We feature varied, nuanced, and often opposing viewpoints in this non-partisan publication, and brave and provocative ideas that will help you (re)discover the joy of deep thinking and caring about the world.

When you subscribe to the newsletter, you'll also receive first-hand updates on what we’re doing at HAC (conferences, events, workshops, etc.), an Arendt Quote of the Week with in-depth analysis from Arendt scholars from around the world, and highlights of the work being done on campus by our Student Fellows. Be among the first to know about special offers from our partners and upcoming events!

We've been publishing weekly essays here on our website since 2010, and are now transitioning to the publication platform Medium. You can still read for free with links from our email each Sunday! But now you can highlight sections and comment, too!

Browse our Library of Amor Essays on Medium
 

A note to new Medium users: if you see an offer pop-up, just simply X out to close and continue reading. You can also Follow HAC on Medium and Subscribe to our publications, to receive additional notifications so you don't miss an essay. 

  • Image for The Radical Politics of Joy
    The Radical Politics of Joy
    "Is Joy really what Arendt wants us to be talking about, amidst the most racist, cruel, and criminal American administration since the Civil Rights era?" So asked one of my favorite former students, protesting the theme of this year's Hannah Arendt Center Conference: JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times.

    READ MORE
  • Image for Civil Disobedience and the Spirit of American Democracy
    Civil Disobedience and the Spirit of American Democracy
    Hannah Arendt wrote that, “Dissent implies consent, and is the hallmark of free government.” We are at a moment when dissent is required if we are to preserve our freedoms.

    READ MORE
  • Image for Temptations of Tyranny
    Temptations of Tyranny
    “If this isn’t tyranny, what is?” So asks Rod Dreher, one of President Trump’s most steadfast intellectual supporters, now increasingly alarmed by the President’s abuses of power.

    READ MORE
  • Image for An Open Letter To My Friends Who Signed “Philosophy for Palestine”
    An Open Letter To My Friends Who Signed “Philosophy for Palestine”
    These are dark times as multiple crises are erupting around the world while talk of a global conflagration is heard in many circles. These are also times that try human relationships, friendships, and alliances.

    READ MORE
Featured Article

Temptations of Tyranny

Rod Dreher’s conflicted support for President Trump illustrates a broader crisis among intellectual conservatives who fear the "soft totalitarianism" of liberal institutions yet embrace the hard authoritarianism of executive overreach. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s political thought, the essay contends that true freedom is preserved not through charismatic leaders but through the multiplication and decentralization of citizen power. Revitalizing democracy, it argues, requires stubborn, local acts of collective governance rather than the dangerous temptation to concentrate authority in a single figure.
04-27-2025

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What We're Reading

Arendt and Big Data

Roger Berkowitz
Daniel Brennan has a new paper on Hannah Arendt’s thinking as it relates to Big Data and Artificial intelligence.
07-03-2022
Featured

The Future of Security

Roger Berkowitz
Liberalism is the political system that claims to balance the competing claims of freedom and order on the side of freedom. The demands of order and security are strong everywhere. For that reason, it is important to take stock of the way China is using technology to preserve public order; China’s innovations will be seductive in Hobbesian liberal democracies as well. Paul Mozur, Muyi Xiao, and John Liu write about the efforts in China to employ big data and technology in surveillance and prevention of crimes. Increasingly, China is at the world leader in promoting technology as a way forward towards a secure society. The elevation of security over freedom, however, raises profound questions for a free society. 
07-03-2022
What We're Reading

Progressive Workplace Problems

Roger Berkowitz
Ryan Grim takes on the elephant in the room of progressive politics, the fact that political organizations on the left are spending more time on internal politics than they are on actually organizing to achieve their political goals. 
 
06-19-2022
Featured

Everything Is Still Falling Apart

Roger Berkowitz
Mars Hill was an evangelical church founded by a charismatic figure Mark Driscoll that was based in Seattle. Driscoll proved a controversial figure, at once a brilliant evangelical leader and a bullying leader also accused of plagiarism and fraud. Mike Cosper tells this story in his podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. The podcast speaks to our present moment, whether or not one is interested in Christianity or in megachurches. It is an extraordinary example of how to tell a story of our time through an in-depth exploration of one exemplary cultural catastrophe. I had the pleasure of speaking with Cosper and Yuval Levin- who will also be speaking at our Fall Conference -on the most recent episode of Cosper's podcast.
06-19-2022
What We're Reading

Reason in Politics: Lawrence Lessig interviews John Gastil

On his podcast Another Way, Larry Lessig spoke with John Gastil of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. They discussed the polarized media landscape and specific steps we can take to improve deliberation, understanding, and the use of reason. Gastil's book, Hope for Democracy, tells the story of the Citizens' Initiative Review in Oregon.
06-19-2022
What We're Reading

On Recognition
 

Peter Gordon reviews Axel Honneth’s new book on recognition and argues that recognition is the cornerstone of who we are as well as our claims for justice and inclusion. 

 
06-12-2022
Featured

The Perils of Invention

The loss of the real world is bound up with the fraying of political truth. In her essay "Truth and Politics," Arendt argues that the loss of truth is more catastrophic for the human activity of politics than is the loss of justice. The Perils of Invention: Lying, Technology, and the Human Condition, edited by HAC Founder and Academic Director Roger Berkowitz, is now available.
06-12-2022

Views on the working class, from the left and the right

In his interviews with Reihan Salam of the Manhattan Institute, and then subsequently with Bhashkar Sunkara of Jacobin and The Nation, Ezra Klein helps contextualize different approaches to imagining and approaching workers and working-class voters. A common critique of elite discourse runs through the two interviews.
06-12-2022
Article

Tracy Strong

Roger Berkowitz
Tracy Burr Strong died on May 11th. Tracy was one of the greatest contemporary political theorists with an extraordinary range. His first book, Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration (1975) is still read widely as both a contribution to Nietzsche studies and to political thinking more broadly. His latest book,  Learning One’s Native Tongue, argues that the essence of American citizenship is not simply a matter of who can vote or whom has rights.
06-05-2022
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