Was Arendt’s pessimism about modern liberal society justified?

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

01/12/2009

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Humanities/philosophy

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Summary :

Introduction.
The starting point of her reasoning.
Ardent and totalitarianism.
1. Her claim that totalitarianism lacked rationality.
2. Universal pessimism about life.
3. Totalitarian terror.
Her attempt to free herself from all precedents.
Her failure to take into account the answer that may lie within the histories of Germany and Russia.
Conclusion.

Abstract

Hannah arendt was born in 1906 in Germany, being the only child of middle-class Jewish parents of Russian descent. As a university student, she was one of the most brilliant and studied with the finest scholars of the time. arendt in 1933 left Germany for France, and was even interned there for a while before she managed to leave for the U.S. in 1941. There, she began to wonder about and write The Origins of Totalitarianism (thereafter referred to as OT) firstly published in 1951. She worked for Jewish organisations, and even took part - as a journalist for The New Yorker - to the infamous Eichmann trial in Israel. Her series of article published in the foresaid journal can be found in: Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report on the Banality of Evil (thereafter Eichmann's Report). She became an eminent political post-modernist philosopher, intrinsically linked to the historical events of the 20th century, both for being a human and a German Jew.