Socrate

by Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt dachte zeitlebens im Horizont Sokrates'. Schon in den amerikanischen Anfängen stellte sie den Lehrer Platons in den Mittelpunkt ihrer Versuche, ein politisch relevantes und persönlich haltbares Denken für die Moderne zu begründen. Meisterhaft entfaltet diese Vorlesung aus den 50er Jahren eine Apologie der menschlichen Pluralität. So wendet sich Arendt gegen die platonische Versuchung, der Relativität der möglichen Wahrheiten mit der absoluten Autorität eines wegweisenden Denkansatzes begegnen zu wollen. Entscheidend ist für Arendt der innere Dialog, den Sokrates philosophisch initiierte. Zudem hebt sie die Kommunikation unter Bürgern und Freunden hervor, die im Austausch der Meinungen gemeinsame Perspektiven der Weltgestaltung eröffnen könne. In den Erinnerungen "In Hannah Arendts Seminar" berichtet ihr letzter Assistent Jerome Kohn, wie sich entlang platonischer Texte das gemeinsame Nachdenken mit der Philosophin an der New School of Social Research gestaltete.

Genres: Philosophy

123 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Hannah Arendt (1906 – 1975) was one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. Born into a German-Jewish family, she was forced to leave Germany in 1933 and lived in Paris for the next eight years, working for a number of Jewish refugee organisations. In 1941 she immigrated to the United States and soon became part of a lively intellectual circle in New York. She held a number of academic positions at various American universities until her death in 1975. She is best known for two works that had a major impact both within and outside the academic community. The first, The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, was a study of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes that generated a wide-ranging debate on the nature and historical antecedents of the totalitarian phenomenon. The second, The Human Condition, published in 1958, was an original philosophical study that investigated the fundamental categories of the vita activa (labor, work, action). In addition to these two important works, Arendt published a number of influential essays on topics such as the nature of revolution, freedom, authority, tradition and the modern age. At the time of her death in 1975, she had completed the first two volumes of her last major philosophical work, The Life of the Mind, which examined the three fundamental faculties of the vita contemplativa (thinking, willing, judging).

Reviews

[Lorenzo Peruta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro breve e arricchito alla fine da due saggi, tratto da una conferenza della Arendt. La studiosa tedesca cercava in questo suo intervento di scindere la figura di Socrate da quella di Platone.

Socrate, con la sua tesi del “due in uno” e il motto delfico, doveva fornire il contraltare alla figura di Eichmann della “Banalità del male”. Non si può comprendere quest’opera senza la lettura del “Socrate” e viceversa.

Con uno stile chiaro ma che risente della prima esposizione orale, Arendt tenta di far emergere il Socrate originale, wuello che secondo lei doveva essere prima che Platone lo piegasse ai suoi scopi. Una figura che incarnava l’azione di cui parla ne “Vita activa” e su cui basare la sua filosofia.

[Santiago Iturbide]

Daß das Böse immer nur extrem ist, aber niemals radikal, es hat keine Tiefe. Das Böse widersetzt sich dem Denken, weil dieses auf der Suche nach Tiefe ist un darin enttäuscht wird, weil nichts dergleichen sich findet lässt.Und genau darin liegt die Banalität.

[Jan Schenkenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein wenig schade, daß und wie sehr die Texte von Kohn und Bormuth so deutlich abfallen.

[David Braimah]

2015

[Malik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denn wir sind auch immer zwei. Ich möchte nicht mit einem Mörder zusammenwohnen, daher kommt meine Moral.

[Marco Ceran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This interesting little book gives a take on philosophy and politics, and how Socrates' famous fate kept later philosophers from dealing with public affairs, starting with Plato and Aristotle. The Socrates' execution is thus compared to the one of Jesus Christ, as some sort of capital sin of philosophy, which is for sure an interesting viewpoint to me. I'd recommend to read at least Socrates' Apology and some general greek philosophy book before indulging in reading this book to better understand the points being discussed.

[Michel Van Goethem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Socrate et la question du totalitarisme
by Hannah Arendt

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein wenig schade, daß und wie sehr die Texte von Kohn und Bormuth so deutlich abfallen.