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
Pope Francis and Humility Before God
Pope Francis I's posture of humility resembles that of Roncalli, whose confidence as a follower of God Arendt sought to understand.10-04-2015
We Never Left: When Nixon Went to China, or when Xi Came to America
The modern Chinese state under President Xi Jinping is an exceedingly different beast than the regimes Arendt understood as inaugurating totalitarianism.09-27-2015
A Chinese President Visits the United States - Where are the Arendtians?
The People’s Republic of China is fertile territory for Arendt scholars. But, as Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the U.S. this week, where are they?09-21-2015
Possibility and Despair: How the EU Migrant Crisis is Disaggregating the Human Condition
Observing the reactions of European countries to the ongoing migrant crisis is cause for feelings of possibility followed by despair.09-20-2015
Wither Europe?: Immigration and the Meaning of Union
The EU migrant crisis and attendant immigration discussions are symptomatic of a deeper rot in the heart of Europe.09-13-2015
Even in Solitude There Are Always Two
We live our whole lives in plurality--either in public, in private, or in solitude--but even even in solitude, there are always two sides in dialogue.09-06-2015
Born of Necessity, Blindness, or Strategy: On Greece and the Bureaucratically Divine
Bureaucracy, as imagined by both Kafka and Arendt, embodies an ideology of necessity through which humans abdicate responsibility for their common world.08-30-2015
The Public Life
To live an authentic public life, one must begin in the sphere of the private that one can confront and take ownership of one’s thoughts and principles.08-23-2015
Truthfulness in Politics
Donald Trump and John Stewart both tap into a desire among the American public for truth in politics.08-16-2015