Hannah Arendt
German-American political theorist who coined 'the banality of evil.'
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Born Johanna Arendt on 14 October 1906, she was a philosopher and historian who held both German and American citizenship.[1] Among twentieth-century political theorists, Arendt ranks as one of the most impactful.[1]
Life and work
Arendt published "Eichmann in Jerusalem" in 1963, which provoked a firestorm of controversy.[2] Arendt's birth in 1906 occurred in Linden, to a Jewish family.[3] At age seven, Arendt experienced the death of her father.[3] Her upbringing, overseen by a mother who was a committed Social Democrat, took place in a secular and politically progressive household.[3]
While a student at the University of Marburg, Arendt studied under Martin Heidegger and started a romantic relationship with him.[3] The University of Heidelberg awarded Arendt a doctorate in philosophy in 1929.[3]
What the cited sources add
A 2006 Deutsche Welle article notes that Arendt did not like to be described as a philosopher because her work centered on the fact that "men, not Man, live on earth and inhabit the world"[2] The same source reports that Arendt testified on Heidegger's behalf before a denazification committee after the war.[2] An Open Culture article states that Arendt sent Heidegger a note on her wedding day saying "our love has become the blessing of my life"[4] The Literary Hub account describes Arendt as "marginalized three times over—woman, Jew, intellectual"[5]
That source also notes that Arendt was sensitized by Heidegger to "the blind spots in the modern image of the world and humanity".[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Hannah Arendt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: d'Entreves 2014; Winston, "Hannah Arendt and the Challenge of Modernity: A Phenomenology of Human Rights by Serena Parekh", Human Rights Quarterly, February 2009, p. 278–282; "Remembering the Theorist of the Banality of Evil", Deutsche Welle, 14 October 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Remembering the Theorist of the Banality of Evil", Deutsche Welle, 14 October 2006. facts only, no text reused. dw.com
- Wikipedia, "Hannah Arendt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jones, "The Love Letters of Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger", Open Culture, 10 May 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Jones, "The Love Letters of Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger", Open Culture, 10 May 2017. facts only, no text reused. openculture.com
- ""Woman, Jew, Intellectual:" How the Nazi State Saw Hannah Arendt", Literary Hub, 2023-08-10. facts only, no text reused. lithub.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Hannah Arendt (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Hannah Arendt (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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