Essays in Understanding, 1930-1954: Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism

491 Pages·2005·26.85 MB·English

by  Hannah Arendt

ESSAYS
UNDERSTANDING
Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism
Hannah Arendt
Edited and with anintroductionby
Jerome Kohn
SCHOCKEN BOOKS, NEW YORK
Compilation,introduction,andeditorialnotescopyright©1994byThe
LiteraryTrustofHannahArendtBluecher
Copyright©1994byTheLiteraryTrustofHannahArendtBluecher
Copyright1954,1953,1950,1946,1945,1944byTheLiteraryTrustof
HannahArendtBluecher
Allrightsreserved.PublishedintheUnitedStatesbySchockenBooks,a
division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in
CanadabyRandomHouseofCanadaLimited,Toronto.Originallypub
lishedinhardcoverbyHarcourtBrace& Company,NewYork,in1994.
SchockenandcolophonareregisteredtrademarksofRandomHouse,Inc.
Owingtolimitationsofspace,permissiontoreprintpreviouslypublished
materialmaybefoundfollowingtheindex.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Arendt,Hannah.
Essaysinunderstanding:1930-1954/HannahArendt;editedbyJerome
Kohn.
p. em.
Originallypublished:1sted.NewYork:Harcourt,Brace& Co.©1994.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN 0-80P-II86-1
I.Philosophy. 2.Politicalscience-Philosophy.
3.Literature,Modern-20thcentury-Historyandcriticism. I.Kohn,
Jerome. II.Title.
B945.A691 2005
10o--dC20 2004059004
www.schocken.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
FirstPaperbackEdition
246897531
Contents
ix Introduction byJerome Kohn
I'l,
"What Remains? The Language Remains":
A Conversation with Gunter Gaus
24 Augustine and Protestantism 130
28 Philosophy and Sociology. '30
44 S~ren Kierkegaard '.>2.
50 Friedrich von Gentz IJZ
57 Berlin Salon /32
I
66 On the Emancipation ofWomen· 33
,
69 Franz Kafka: A Revaluation 4L,
,
81 Foreign Affairs in the Foreign-Language Press LfL{
106 Approaches to the "German Problem" 't,5
r;
121 Organized Guilt and Universal Responsibility' 1(,
133 Nightmare and Flight 1(/5
v
VI/CONTENTS
136 Dilthey as Philosopher and Historian}{]S
140 The Seeds ofa Fascist International ICl5
151 Christianity and Revolution I I{,S
156 Power Politics Triumphs 145",.tlft,
158 No Longer and Not Yet Il,C,
t,,,
163 What Is Existential Philosophy? ~ ,
188 French Existentialism (fIle
194 The Ivory Tower ofCommon Sense '{f"
197 The Image of Hell 'iffr:, .,,".~.•~,;,>e. "-..~....,j~',."."T-
206 The Nation Ilit,
212 Dedication to Karl Jaspers
217 Rand School Lecture L,Y- {('j
!
228 Religion and the Intellectuals I.50
232 Social Science Techniques and the StudyofConcentration
Camps 150
248 The Aftermath of Nazi Rule: Report from Germany 150
5
270 The Eggs Speak Up l 0
285 At Table with Hitler l5" - 52.
297 Mankind and Terror .'~3
307 Understanding and Politics (The Difficulties of
Understanding); f)It
328 On the Nature ofTotalitarianism:
An Essay in Understanding
fJ
361 Heidegger the Fox I
363 Understanding Communism'" 53
368 Religion and Politics \"5})
CONTENTS / vii
391 The Ex-Communists 'S3
401 AReply to Eric Voegelin '53
409 Dream and Nightmare / S(,
418 Europe and the Atom Bomb 1)(/
423 The Threat ofConformism '5
L(
428 Concern with Politics in Recent European Philosophical
Thought '5"l(

Introduction
by Jerome Kohn
Whatis importantfor meis to understand.
Forme, writingis amatterofseekingthis
understanding, partofthe process ofunderstanding.
'WhatRemains?The LanguageRemains'"
_H
"I
T IS A curse to live in interesting times." So runs an ancient
Chinese sayingthat HannahArendt, during thelast eightyears of
her tooshortlife,wouldcite as anasideinthe midstofdiscussing
the latest domestic disaster orinternational crisis. Shedid so wrylyor
pensively, as ifits ironic meaningwere transparentlyclear, neitherre
quiring nor receiving any explanation. Nevertheless, it was difficult
not tobe struckbysomethingparadoxical, notonlyinthe sayingitself
but in hearing it from her, for her commitment to human affairs was
uncompromisingly serious. She sought to understand the events of
"this terrible century" with a passion that for manyyears has inspired
scholars, artists, writers, intellectuals, public figures, and other read
ers of her work to confront unsentimentally, and without equivoca
tion, the sufferings of "this none too beautiful world," even in "the
darkest oftimes." The quoted words are hers, and it is on account of
them that today, in retrospect, the Chinese proverb appears strangely
evocative and even emblematic of this intensely thoughtful and pri
vate woman.
Hannah Arendt (I906-1975) is known throughout much of the
world as a political philosopher, in spite ofthe fact that, for the most
ix
x / INTRODUCTION
part, she repudiated that title, along with the claims and foundations
of political philosophy. It is difficult to say what she was. Whereas
some commentators have emphasized the sociological and historical
aspects ofher work, and others its literary and indeed poetic quality,
still more have written of her as a political scientist, a label she ac
ceptedfor manyyears. Later, whenfame hadcome to herand shewas
asked to describewhatshe did, she commodiouslyreferred toitas po
litical"theory" or"thought." She has been hailed,justifiably, as both a
liberal wanting change and a conservative desiring stability, and been
criticizedforharboringanunrealisticyearningforthepastorforbeing
a utopian revolutionary. Thesevarious characterizations (andfar more
subtle ones might be adduced) reflect the diverse interests of those
who make them, yet theyalso indicate thegenuineperplexityencoun
tered by any impartial reader who attempts to form a judgment of
Arendtin terms oftraditionalacademic disciplines ortraditionalpolit
icalcategories. Itmaybedisconcertingtorealize thatbynatureArendt
was not personally attracted to the political realm, not initially and
perhaps not ever: even her extraordinary understanding of political
action was due, she said, to the fact that she "looked at it from the
outside."
What is beyond doubt, however, is that from first to last she was
irresistibly drawn to the activity of understanding, an endless and
circular mental activity whose principal significance for her lay in
itselfrather than in its results. She had plenty ofideas and opinions,
to be sure; she made newdistinctions, contributednewconcepts, and
altered old categories of traditional political thought. Those are
results, and they have proved useful to others. But, unlike most
political thinkers, Arendt was not primarily concerned with solving
problems; her ceaseless ventures in understanding were for her no
more "instrumental" than life itself. What is more difficult to grasp is
that the activity of understanding afforded her a measure of rec
onciliation to the world in which she lived. If others came to under
stand, in hersense ofunderstanding, then shewas gratified and made
tofeel "athome."This does not mean shewantedorbelieved itpossi
ble to hand over her own thoughts to anyone else. That would have
been sheer nonsense to Arendt, for whom thinking-understanding,
endowing an event with meaning-was an engagement with oneself,
INTRODUCTION / xi
solitary and private. She led an exemplary life, a life that has been
told and retold, but ultimately the light shed on the world by her
understandingofitis the onlywayto catch a glimpse ofwho Hannah
Arendtwas.
Born into a well-established nonreligious German Jewish family
near the beginning of the century, she was prodigiously intelligent,
bountifullyeducated, andheirtoanoldandrichcultureofwhich, per
haps, she was the last embodiment. In the 1920s two events, offun
damentallyopposednature,playedacrucialroleinthedevelopmentof
her thought and character. The first was her initial contact as a stu
dent, which was to develop into lifelong attachment, with two great
thinkers in the vanguard of existential philosophy: Martin Heidegger
and Karl Jaspers. The second event was the consolidation of the
National Socialist movement in Germany.
ForArendt, the revolution in philosophywas a turninginward, not
in the introspective, psychological sense, but because her faculty of
thinkinghadbeenliberatedfrom the systematicrationalizations ofthe
natural and historical worlds inheritedfrom the previous century. She
experienced what she called a "philosophic shock": the sheerwonder
at existence, which is sharply to be distinguished from mere curiosity.
From that shock sprang intense self-reflection, or thinking with one
self, which for her would henceforth be the hallmark of all genuine
philosophizing. Thus, in addition to the content of the thought of
Heidegger and Jaspers, there was opened to the youthful Arendt an
inner spiritual realm, invisible and immaterial, which she could liter
allyinhabit in solitude.
Theopposedmovementtookplaceintheoutward, apparentworld,
its radical intentions beingnot to modifybut to destroythe structures
and institutions ofcivil association that had evolved through the cen
turies. She referred to the growth of this politically revolutionary
movement as the "shockofreality."
It is not as ifArendt experienced separatelythe mind's withdrawal
from the world in self-reflection and the approach of National
Socialism. Shewas youngand notone ofthe "professional"intellectu
als who could leave Germanyand in a freer countrycontinue to work
much as before in their fields of scholarship. Yet she was appalled by
the ease with which some members of the intellectual community