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The Life of the Mind: One-Volume Edition (1978)

by Hannah Arendt

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: The Life of the Mind (omnibus 1-2), Gifford Lectures (1972-1974)

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829826,160 (4.32)3
Considered by many to be Hannah Arendt's greatest work, published as she neared the end of her life, The Life of the Mind investigates thought itself, as it exists in contemplative life. In a shift from her previous writings, most of which focus on the world outside the mind, this work was planned as three volumes that would explore the activities of the mind considered by Arendt to be fundamental. What emerged is a rich, challenging analysis of human mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging. This final achievement, presented here in a complete one-volume edition, may be seen as a legacy to our own and future generations.… (more)
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English (5)  Dutch (2)  French (1)  All languages (8)
Showing 5 of 5
Hannah Arendt was a genius, an unbelievably brilliant thinker, philosopher, social historian and writer. As with all of her books I have read (3 prior) I learned a lot and was stunned by the vastness & depth of her mind. I could not understand all of this, but it nevertheless expanded me. ( )
  RickGeissal | Aug 16, 2023 |
Hannah Arendt asks whether the banality of evil might not be an absence of thought. She goes on to explore the thinking process, as well as truth and meaning, will and judgment, and sense and consensus.
  PendleHillLibrary | Jun 9, 2016 |
--Part 2, On Willing, about history of notion of free will from Stoics, through St. Augustine, etc.
  pharmakos555 | Sep 26, 2008 |
The Life of the Mind, Hannah Arendt's voyage into the realm of invisible mental activities, was originally conceived of in two volumes, the first on Thinking and the second on Willing and Judging. Arendt, however, died before completing (or even formally starting) Judging.

Thinking covers ground that will likely be familiar to readers of Arendt's Between Past and Future and Responsibility and Judgment (particularly her essay "Some Questions of Moral Philosophy"). Where Arendt breaks new ground is by reapproaching the realm of metaphysics, not so much to rescue it from its somewhat dubious status but to integrate it more solidly within the framework of philosophy. To this end, Arendt suggests that metaphysics is not outdated but often times "implausible." A new approach to metaphysics and its reintegration into philosophy requires that philosophers ask new, plausible questions. With this goal in mind, Arendt is able to quiet concerns about the two-world theory (a fallacy anyway, she argues) and offers a compelling argument on the primacy of appearances (which turns out to be not as positivist as you might think). From this unlikely point Arendt is able to bring us back to the world of invisibles and ask such questions as what makes us think and where we are when we do it. Arendt accomplishes this through some of her familiar mainstays--etymological studies of the words we use to talk about thinking and our Greek and Roman philosophical inheritances on the subject. Of course, numerous references to Kant abound (the structure of The Life of the Mind was intended to mirror Kant's Critiques), and a thoughtful evaluation of Arendt's "thinker par excellence," Socrates, surfaces again in this work.

The second part of this work, Willing, provides a comprehensive philosophical history on the subject, stretching from Epictectus through Nietzsche and Heidegger. With so much history, what is missing from this volume is Arendt's sparkling originality of thought, present throughout every page of works like The Origins of Totalitarianism. The work feels comprehensive (mainly because it can be rather exhausting at times) but not necessarily as original as one might expect from Arendt.

Also of note is Mary McCarthy's Postface to this work, which provides a fascinating glimmer of light onto Arendt's remarkably private character. ( )
2 vote mambo_taxi | Apr 20, 2008 |
The Life of the Mind (Combined 2 Volumes in 1) by Hannah Arendt (1981)
  leese | Nov 23, 2009 |
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McCarthy, MaryEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Numquam se plus agere quam nihil com ageret, numquam minus solum esse quam cum solus esset. Cato
Everyone one of us is like a man who sees things in a dream and thinks that he knows them perfectly and then wakes up to find that he knows nothing. Plato
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The world man are born into contains many things, natural and artificial, living and dead, transient and sempiternal, all of which have in common that they appear and hence are meant to be seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled, to be perceived by sentient creatures endowed with the appropriate sense organs.
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Considered by many to be Hannah Arendt's greatest work, published as she neared the end of her life, The Life of the Mind investigates thought itself, as it exists in contemplative life. In a shift from her previous writings, most of which focus on the world outside the mind, this work was planned as three volumes that would explore the activities of the mind considered by Arendt to be fundamental. What emerged is a rich, challenging analysis of human mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging. This final achievement, presented here in a complete one-volume edition, may be seen as a legacy to our own and future generations.

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