Quote of the Weeks
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Hannah Arendt’s Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy
In the Fall of 1970, Hannah Arendt delivered a series of lectures on Kant’s political philosophy. She was scheduled to teach Kant again in the spring of 1976, though her death in December 1975 prevented her from doing so. Indeed, the fact of her untimely death is central to the story of Arendt’s Kant lectures – both their origin and the scholarly attention given to them. Being lecture notes, they were, of course, not published – nor were they ever intended for publication. Relegated to a cardboard box and stored in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., they became the interest of a then-graduate student, Ronald Beiner, who sought to read them for the purposes of his dissertation research.10-31-2024
Quote of the Weeks
Action and Interaction
Action and interaction both relate to the public space, but where and how they occur in the world differs significantly.01-24-2016
Japan's Collective Self-Defense: On Arendt, Sovereignty, and Peace
To identify freedom with free will has brought the “most dangerous consequence,” for it allows us to claim freedom at the price of all others' sovereignty.01-17-2016
Leading Students Into the World
The authority of teachers lies, at least in part, in their ability to set aside judging and to present the world as it is to their students.01-10-2016
Home, Homelessness, and The Human Condition
Arendt’s "The Human Condition" forces us to ask the question: What does it means to be at home in the world?12-27-2015
Recognizing Rage and Legitimate Acts of Violence
Laurie Naranch explains how rage may authorize momentary violence as a legitimate, if for Arendt, antipolitical response to injustice.12-20-2015
A Home Away From Home
Jennie Han explores the concept of “home” with respect to our discussions of the ongoing student protests on American college campuses.11-29-2015
The Politics of Kafka
Arendt reconstructs from Kafka's work a writer inspired by a world “in which the actions of man depend on nothing but himself and his spontaneity.”11-22-2015
On the Justice of Institutions and of Persons: Impartiality and Dependency in Martha Nussbaum and Hannah Arendt
Arendt scarcely addressed distributive justice, but her reasoning could augment that of Martha Nussbaum, who criticized the liberal model of John Rawls.11-15-2015
Busy Nobody
While human natality can make freedom appear and disappear, the busy nobody also has the capacity to block the initiative that would manifest human freedom.11-08-2015