Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

Hannah Arendt wrote some of the most profound philosophy of the twentieth century. Her work is rich and subtle and she engaged critically with the key intellectual ideas of philosophical history, including: What makes humans ‘human’? What makes an ethical life? The nature of evil; How do we forgive the unforgivable? What does it mean to have ‘common sense’? What is the nature of ‘story telling’?

Hannah undertook the considerable task of understanding the political events of her own time and produced works such as The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

In the late sixties, she turned her attention to the Civil Rights movement, feminism and the Vietnam War. Her last work The Life of the Mind (1977) was published posthumously. In this work, she asks: What are we ‘doing’ when we do nothing but think? We will connect some of her ideas to our current situation and the possibilities in the post-COVID-19 world.

Aims

The aims of this course are to:

• provide you with an overview of the origins and complexities of the philosophy of Hannah Arendt
• make the connection between the history of Totalitarianism and the contemporary situation, including the outcomes of a post-COVID-19 world
• demonstrate the important role played by Hannah Arendt in our understanding of human nature
• provide you with an understanding of the complex structure of the internal workings of political theory through Hannah Arendt