The Life of the Mind, Volume Two: Willing

by Hannah Arendt

The author’s final work is a rich, challenging analysis of man’s mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging. Edited by Mary McCarthy; Indices.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

277 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

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

[Rik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tour de force.

[Yanni Ratajczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit tweede deel van de geplande trilogie 'Het leven van de geest' wordt gewijd aan het menselijk vermogen van de wil. Hannah Arendt gaat op zoek doorheen de Westerse geschiedenis om te achterhalen hoe mensen zich bewust werden van een (vrije) wil. Ze toont ons hoe het wilsdenken via christelijk geïnspireerde teksten kwam bovendrijven.

Hoewel Arendt haar voorkeur voor de wilsconcepten van Augustinus en Duns Scotus laat blijken schrijft ze een intrigerend laatste hoofdstuk waarin ze de volgens haar oorspronkelijke en correcte idee van vrijheid contrasteert met het concept dat meestal in de traditie wordt gehanteerd. Ze lijkt nog niet alle oplossingen gevonden te hebben en eindigt het boek met een onzekere toon, die volgens haar gevolgd zou worden door meer trefzekere teksten in 'Oordelen', we hebben er jammer genoeg het gissen naar...

Willen, vertaald door Remi Peeters en Dirk De Schutter, roept heel wat interessante vragen op die de drang om andere werken van de originele politieke theoretica te lezen versterkt.

[Bruno · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a bit ambivalent. I really adored Hannah Arendts work when I was younger. And I still do. But Willing is very dense, and it's unclear sometimes where it all leads to. Partially of course because the work is unfinished (Arendt never reread the first draft), partially because the third part on Judging is missing, but also because the book itself lacks a structure.
The Will is a powerful concept, creating the possibility of freedom and real action (political action in Arendt's terminology). However it is disappointing to read at the end that the actual freedom (example of American Revoluation) is immediately hidden in a return-to-the-past. Together with modern research on the illusion of free will, one starts to wonder whether Arendts Will isn't also speculation like the German Idealists (rainbow bridge of concepts), an illusation created by the mind but with no (few) grounding in reality ...

And in that sense Arendts work is still very very modern and merits a close reading. So a reading that was disappointing and at the same time also reinvigorating. Arendt never fails to surprise ...

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rich writing and deep analysis of the history of philosophy is Arendt's calling card, and this book has all of that richness. The book explored 'willing' as it developed through history, and analyses how the idea of seeing a 'future' to one's actions influenced thought systems in western philosophy. However, some of the concept feels unfinished, and as she died before the book's publication I feel that she may have tidied up her analysis before publication (it is also possible that the unfinished third part to this trilogy may have concluded her thoughts). The concluding chapter and the chapter on Duns Scotus are particularly strong, and overall this is a worthy final book from one of the best 20th Century philosophers.

[Mitchell Staude · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each work of hers I read is even better than the least one. She is so good.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hannah Arendt, a philosopher who met such a people as Martin Heidegger and [author:Karl Jaspers|14706, wrote a book on life of mind. Willing is second part of unfinished trilogy. Arendt in this book made a thesis that the things that will happen are unpredictable cause decicion about future depends on willing of each human being. The book is great.

[haetmonger · Rating 4 out of 5]

a philosophical history of the will, kind of an expanded version of "what is freedom?". arendt at her most readable.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

The companion volume to thinking addresses a much more complex subject. Includes the skeleton of the third unpublished part Judging.