The philosopher Hannah Arendt knew firsthand what totalitarianism was firsthand. Being of Jewish descent, she went through a Nazi concentration camp, from where she was lucky to be saved. Subsequently, she reached the United States and lived in this country until her death. Her works on phenomenology influenced philosophers such as Maurice Merlot-Ponti, Jürgen Habermas, Giorgio Agamben, Walter Benjamin and others. At the same time, these works pushed many people away from her, even close friends. Who is this woman who received such a mixed assessment in society? Our article will tell about the life path of Hannah Arendt, her formation as a philosopher and briefly clarify the essence of her books.
Childhood
Hannah Arendt was born in 1906, on October 14, in the city of Linden (German Empire). Both of her parents were from East Prussia. Engineer Paul Arendt and his wife Martha Cohn were Jews, but led a secular lifestyle. Already in childhood, spent in Königsberg, the girl was faced with manifestations of anti-Semitism. In this case, she was instructed by her mother. If anti-Semitic statements were made from the teacher, Hannah had to get up and leave the classroom. After that, the mother had the right to complain in writing. And the girl had to confront her anti-Semitic classmates herself. In principle, her childhood passed happily. The family did not even use the word “Jew”, but also did not allow themselves to be disrespectfully treated.
Hannah Arendt: biography
A girl from childhood showed a penchant for the humanities. She was educated at three universities - in Marburg, Freiburg and Heidelberg. Her spiritual teachers in philosophy were Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers. The girl was not a blue stocking at all. In 1929, she married Gunther Anders. But this marriage fell apart after eight years. A second time she married Heinrich Blucher. Being insightful, the girl immediately realized that she was promising her and her loved ones the rise of the Nazis to power. Therefore, already in 1933, she fled to France. But Nazism overtook her there too. In 1940, she was interned in the Gurs camp. She managed to escape, and she was sent to Lisbon, and from there to the United States of America. Hannah Arendt settled in New York, worked as a correspondent in The New Yorker magazine. In this capacity, she came to Jerusalem in 1961, at the trial of Adolf Eichmann.
This event served as the basis for her famous book The Banality of Evil. At the end of her life, she taught at US universities and colleges. She died at the age of 69 in December 1975 in New York. About the difficult fate of Hannah Arendt in 2012, director Margaret von Trotta made the same film.
Meaning in philosophy
In the creative heritage of Hannah Arendt about five hundred diverse works on the subject. However, they are all united by one idea - to comprehend the processes occurring in the society of the twentieth century. According to the philosopher of politics, humanity is not threatened by natural disasters and not from outside. The main enemy lurks within society - this is the desire for control over everyone. Hannah Arendt, whose books disappointed many Jews, did not think in terms of "peoples", "ethnic groups." She did not divide them into "guilty" and "lambs to the slaughter." In her eyes they were all human. And each person is unique. She is the founder of the theory of the origin and existence of totalitarianism.
The main works. "The banality of evil"
Hello, this is the most scandalous book that Hannah Arendt wrote. The Banality of Evil: Eichmann in Jerusalem came out two years after the trial of the SS Obersturmbannführer. It was the testimony of the “architect of the Holocaust” that made the philosopher rethink what happened during the Nazi rule and give them a new assessment. The head of the Gestapo department spoke of his work on the “final solution of the Jewish question” as an office routine. He was not at all a convinced anti-Semite, tormented by a bathhert, a psychopath, or a flawed person. He simply carried out the order. And this was the main Holocaust nightmare - the terrifying banality of evil. The philosopher does not show reverence for the victims and does not blaspheme the entire German people. The most evil is done by a bureaucrat who meticulously performs his functions. Guilty is the system that creates these responsibilities for mass destruction.
“About violence”
In 1969, the philosopher continued to develop the theme of power and human freedom. Violence is just a tool with which some people and parties achieve what they want. So says Hannah Arendt. “On violence” is a complex, philosophical work. A political theorist delimits such concepts as government and totalitarianism. Power is connected with the need to act together, seek allies, and negotiate. The absence of this leads to a loss of authority, coherence. The ruler, feeling the throne swaying beneath him, tries to hold on by violence ... and he himself becomes his hostage. He can no longer loosen his grip. So terror is born.
"The origins of totalitarianism"
This book was published in 1951. It is thanks to her that Hannah Arendt is called the founder of the theory of totalitarianism. In it, the philosopher explores various social systems that have existed throughout human history. She concludes that totalitarianism is not like tyranny, despotism and examples of the authoritarianism of antiquity. It is a product of the twentieth century. Arendt calls Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia the classic examples of totalitarian society. The philosopher analyzes the socio-economic reasons for the emergence of this system, isolates its main features and features. Basically, the book deals with examples of terror in Nazi Germany, which Hannah Arendt herself directly faced. The "origins of totalitarianism," however, are timeless labor. We can see some features of this system in modern societies of the twenty-first century.