"Berlin’s Bête Noire: Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and the Modes of Anti-totalitarian Commitment in the 20th Century." A Lunchtime Talk with Visiting Scholar, Kei Hiruta

Born in Riga in 1909 and an émigré to England at the age of eleven, Isaiah Berlin was a philosopher, political theorist and intellectual historian, whose work was devoted to the defence of human freedom against the twin threats of Nazism and Stalinism. And yet he did not think highly of Arendt’s comparable effort. On the contrary, he developed strong hostility towards her, ‘see[ing] nothing in her writings of the slightest value or interest’. Arendt was not impressed by Berlin’s work, either. She did not respond to his hostility in kind, but she showed little interest in his writings, seeing him as little more than a respectable intellectual historian. Why were the two Jewish émigré thinkers unable to understand each other? This lunchtime talk gives a brief overview of the intellectual, political, and personal conflict between Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin.

Invite Only/Rsvp to [email protected]
Location: Seminar Room, Hannah Arendt Center
Date: Wed. April 12
Time: 1:30pm