The Mission of the Arendt Center at Bard

The mission of the Center is to foster thinking about problems and crises that reflect the insight and independence that Hannah Arendt brought to bear on political and ethical themes from anti-Semitism and totalitarianism to thoughtless consumerism and lying in politics. On the major issues of our time—from terror and torture to dissent and the environment—the Arendt Center will bring established public intellectuals and young fellows to Bard to try to, as Arendt would have it, comprehend these events. The effort is not to divine what Hannah Arendt would do or say; instead, it is to take Arendt’s singular and much needed approach to political questions as a spur to rigorous, daring, and creative engagement.