Hannah Arendtová strana 2 z 2

Eseje, v nichž se Hannah Arendtová táže po povaze svobody, autority a dějin, pojí motiv osudového přeryvu: přerušení západní filosofické tradice vyústilo v totality dvacátého století. Knihu publikovanou poprvé r. 1961 proto uvádí výrokem Reného Chara, francouzského básníka a člena odporu v době nacistické okupace Francie: Naše dědictví nám nebylo odkázáno žádnou závětí. Citát, který se jako ozvěna nese osmi esejemi, poukazuje k obtížné pozici moderního člověka: mezi minulostí a budoucností se rozevřela propast, k jejíž přemostění nelze užít zděděné pojmy.

Hannah Arendt was born in Germany in 1906 and lived in America from 1941 until her death in 1975. Thus her life spanned the tumultuous years of the twentieth century, as did her thought. She did not consider herself a philosopher, though she studied and maintained close relationships with two great philosophers--Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegger--throughout their lives. She was a thinker, in search not of metaphysical truth but of the meaning of appearances and events. She was a questioner rather than an answerer, and she wrote what she thought, principally to encourage others to think for themselves. Fearless of the consequences of thinking, Arendt found courage woven in each and every strand of human freedom. In 1951 she published The Origins of Totalitarianism, in 1958 The Human Condition, in 1961 Between Past and Future, in 1963 On Revolution and Eichmann in Jerusalem, in 1968 Men in Dark Times, in 1970 On Violence, in 1972 Crises of the Republic, and in 1978, posthumously, The Life of the Mind. Starting at the turn of the twenty-first century, Schocken Books has published a series of collections of Arendt's unpublished and uncollected writings, of which Thinking Without a Banister is the fifth volume. The title refers to Arendt's description of her experience of thinking, an activity she indulged without any of the traditional religious, moral, political, or philosophic pillars of support. The book's contents are varied: the essays, lectures, reviews, interviews, speeches, and editorials, taken together, manifest the relentless activity of her mind as well as her character, acquainting the reader with the person Arendt was, and who has hardly yet been appreciated or understood. (Edited and with an introduction by Jerome Kohn)

Ve svém posledním díle, jehož knižní podoba vyšla až z pozůstalosti, se Hannah Arendtová věnuje základním, na sebe nepřevoditelným dimenzím lidské mysli či ducha: myšlení, chtění a souzení. V prvním svazku zasazuje myšlení do prostoru lidské praxe, aby právě takto ukázala jeho svébytnost, a snaží se na tradiční metafyzické otázky podat nemetafyzické odpovědi. Její úvaha je osobitým a pronikavým dialogem se Sókratem, Platónem, Aristotelem, Kantem, Heideggerem a dalšími postavami filosofické tradice ale také pozoruhodnou interpretací textů Franze Kafky či W. H. Audena.

Vita activa, známější pod anglickým názvem The Human Condition, je nejdůležitější filosofický spis Hannah Arendtové. Pojednává v něm o základních formách lidské činnosti, které jsou zároveň základními podmínkami, za nichž je člověku dán život na zemi. Těmi jsou práce, zhotovování a jednání, jež charakterizují člověka jako pracující bytost čelící tlaku biologické nutnosti (animal laborans), jako zhotovitele předmětů lidského světa zajišťujícího stabilní rámec pro existenci lidského rodu (homo faber) a jako politickou bytost, která skrze jednání a promlouvání manifestuje svou personální jedinečnost, uskutečňuje svou svobodu a spolu s druhými splétá předivo lidských vztahů (animal politikum). Systematická filosofická analýza těchto lidských činností je spojena s pronikavou reflexí hlubokých společenských proměn v novověku a s kritickým rozborem teorií, které byly jejich myšlenkovým základem.

'People can only be free in relation to one another.' Three exhilarating and inspiring essays in which the great twentieth-century political philosopher argues that there can be no freedom without politics, and no politics without freedom. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.

Hannah Arendt's portrayal of the terrible consequences of blind obedience, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil contains an introduction by Amos Elon in Penguin Classics. Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt's authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi SS leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript commenting on the controversy that arose over her book. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative - a meticulous and unflinching look at one of the most unsettling (and unsettled) issues of the twentieth century. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was for many years University Professor of Political Philosophy in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research and a Visiting Fellow of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. She is also the author of Eichmann in Jerusalem, On Revolution, and Between Past and Future. If you enjoyed Eichmann in Jerusalem, you might like Elie Wiesel's Night, available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Deals with the greatest problem of our time ... the problem of the human being within a modern totalitarian system' Bruno Bettelheim, The New Republic 'A profound and documented analysis ... Bound to stir our minds and trouble our consciences' Chicago Tribune

The classic work on 'the banality of evil', and a journalistic masterpiece Hannah Arendt's stunning and unnverving report on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in the New Yorker in 1963. This edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, this classic portrayal of the banality of evil is as shocking as it is informative - an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling issues of the twentieth century.

Written in 1970, with the Holocaust and Hiroshima still fresh in recent memory, the war in Vietnam raging and the streets of Europe and America seething with student protest, Hannah Arendt's now classic work offered a startling dissection of violence in the twentieth century: its nature and causes, its place in politics and war, its role in the modern age. Combining theory and lucid historical analysis, Arendt argues that violence and power are ultimately incompatible, and that one fills the vacuum created by the other - an insight which continues to offer a valuable framework for understanding the chaos of our own times.