Hannah Arendt on Thinking (1967)

Summary

In this insightful 1967 discourse, Hannah Arendt delves into the complexities of thinking, tracing its philosophical roots and examining its relevance in the face of adversity. She draws connections between ancient thinkers like Socrates, Solon, and Cicero and the modern need for philosophical reflection when reality becomes intolerable. Through a rich narrative, Arendt highlights how thought processes can lift the human spirit beyond immediate circumstances, morphing from mundane comprehension to profound philosophical inquiry. The discussion reveals the timeless appeal and necessity of philosophy as a tool for understanding and ameliorating human existence.

Highlights

• The hidden complexity of judgments and their historical lineage is crucial in understanding philosophical thought. 🎯
• Arendt connects historical perspectives on courage, justice, and happiness to modern philosophical reasoning. 📚
• She emphasizes the transformative power of philosophy as a means of introspection and escape from adversity. ✨
• Arendt discusses the value of philosophical thought as a form of survival and resilience against life's hardships. 💪
• The narrative weaves through the thoughts of ancient philosophers, illustrating philosophy as a timeless tool. 🕰️

Key Takeaways

• Philosophical thinking elevates mundane comprehension to deeper inquiry. 🤔
• Ancient philosophers influenced modern understanding of adversity and thought. ⏳
• Philosophy offers a refuge and a new perspective when reality feels unbearable. 🌍
• The historical context of philosophical ideas enriches modern thought. 📜
• Emphasizing admiration in thought showcases the positive pursuit of knowledge. 🌟

Overview

Hannah Arendt, in her 1967 lecture, discusses the nuanced intricacies of philosophical thinking by drawing from ancient philosophers like Socrates and Solon. She portrays them as pioneers in exploring invisible yet impactful ideas such as courage and justice, ultimately connecting their thoughts to present-day philosophical deliberation.

Arendt further explores how historical contexts and the political climate influenced the trajectory of philosophical ideas. She highlights the Stoic resilience as depicted by philosophers like Epictetus, where philosophical thinking becomes a haven amid adverse circumstances, illustrating its timeless relevance.

The lecture underlines the significance of admiration and awe in philosophy, demonstrating that despite vast historical and cultural shifts, the appeal of philosophical inquiry remains unchanged. Arendt's exploration connects past philosophical discussions with modern challenges, emphasizing the enduring human quest for meaning and understanding.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 02:00: Introduction to Judgment and Philosophy The chapter focuses on the intricate nature of judgments, which although may appear simple, hold significant depth and complexity. It references a story by Herodotus to illustrate this complexity, suggesting that true judgment often involves unseen measures that define the boundaries of all things. The chapter underlines that understanding such hidden dimensions is a challenging, yet essential part of philosophical inquiry.
• 02:00 - 05:00: Socratic Thinking Socratic Thinking delves into the philosophical inquiries initiated by Socrates, who sought to bring abstract philosophy into practical, earthly matters. The chapter discusses how Socrates began examining the invisible metrics by which we assess human affairs, raising essential questions such as 'What is happiness?' This exploration demonstrates Socrates' contribution to grounding philosophical thought in human-centered queries.
• 05:00 - 10:00: Visibility and Invisibility in Thinking The chapter explores philosophical themes such as courage, piety, friendship, knowledge, and justice through the lens of Socratic thinking. Solon, a historical lawgiver, is mentioned in the context of providing answers, but ultimately, Socratic dialogues often conclude with an acknowledgment of not having achieved a definitive understanding of these complex concepts. The chapter reflects on the nature of Socratic thinking, characterized by perpetual questioning and the challenge of uncovering true wisdom.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Philosophy in Times of Crisis This chapter explores the nature of philosophical inquiry during periods of crisis, beginning with the concept of 'courage' as understood through sensory perception. It questions foundational concepts such as courage and justice, acknowledging that their existence is signaled by what we observe, yet they themselves are not directly perceived. The complexity of these abstract concepts leads to questions that remain unanswered, indicating that the original sense of wonder about them is not only perpetuated but deepened in times of crisis.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Thinking as Escape from Reality The chapter titled 'Thinking as Escape from Reality' discusses a philosophical perspective on human actions and morality. It highlights the idea that people are capable of performing courageous and just actions even without a clear understanding or ability to define what courage and justice truly are. The text suggests a form of philosophical perplexity, emphasizing a theme of wonder about human capabilities in the absence of complete knowledge, akin to Socratic questioning about the nature of virtues.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Roman Influence on Philosophy This chapter explores the influence of Roman culture on philosophical thought, contrasting lofty philosophical quests like those of Plato and Parmenides with the more practical Socratic method. While acknowledging the significant historical, political, and philosophical differences between these approaches, the chapter emphasizes their broader impact, particularly in political contexts, rather than focusing solely on their philosophical distinctions.
• 25:00 - 30:00: Stoic Views on Thinking and Reality The chapter discusses the Stoic philosophy regarding perception and reality. It highlights how thought often engages with the invisible aspects of the world, which are indicated by visible appearances, such as the sky or human actions. It draws a parallel with how Americans live among others, suggesting that invisibility is often intertwined with what is visible. The importance of understanding these invisible elements in the visible world is emphasized within the context of Stoic thought.
• 30:00 - 40:00: Cicero's Dream and the Relativization of the World This chapter explores the philosophical concept of thoughts and ideas as described by Cicero and Plato. It delves into how thoughts, once aroused, transform into ideas concerning admirable and affirmative subjects. The text suggests that Plato acknowledges these ideas as observable phenomena, emphasizing a need to retreat from over-complication to prevent misunderstanding. The chapter appears to navigate the complexities of philosophical thought and its relation to observable reality, inviting reflection on the positive qualities of ideas and the importance of recognizing their perceptible nature.
• 40:00 - 50:00: Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy In this chapter, the discussion revolves around a seemingly endless debate filled with convoluted ideas, drawing on the philosophies of Socrates. There is a mention of a young Socrates who is expected to have a shift in perspective as he matures. However, the text acknowledges that despite the arguments proposed, some questions remain unresolved, and aren't revisited in Plato's works. The chapter expresses a sentiment of disinterest towards these unresolved philosophical questions, implying a focus on other matters instead.
• 50:00 - 55:00: Concluding Thoughts on Philosophy and Reality The chapter 'Concluding Thoughts on Philosophy and Reality' explores the importance of ideas in Plato's philosophy, arguing that the notion of ideas might have been inspired by beautiful things around him.

Hannah Arendt on Thinking (1967) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 he himself was well aware of the difficult nature of such deceptively simple judgments he said and this fragment ties very well with a story told by herodotus most hard is it to perceive the hidden measure of judgment which nevertheless even though it appears not holds the limits of all things are funness the hidden the non-manifest
• 00:30 - 01:00 measure of all things sullen sounds here like a predecessor of socrates who also wanted to bring us more saturated philosophy down from the sky to the earth and therefore began to examine the invisible measures by which we judge human affairs he raised the question what is happiness socrates leader was to raise a question
• 01:00 - 01:30 what is courage piety friendship knowledge justice etc and solon still gives a kind of an answer where socrates concludes virtually all the strictly socratic dialogues by seeing i have failed actually to discover what it is maybe what we were talking about that's the end of the challenges in this apparatic character of socratic thinking means the admiring wonder adjusts or
• 01:30 - 02:00 courageous the seen by the eyes of the body gives birth to such questions as what is courage what is justice the existence of courage or justice is indicated by what i have seen though they themselves were not given incense perception but the original wonder is not only not resolved in such questions since they remain without answer but even
• 02:00 - 02:30 reinforced what begins as one that ends in perplexity and therefore leads back to wonder how marvelous that men can perform courageous and just deeds even though they do not know cannot give account of what courage and justice is that is as though socrates said that there is of course a decisive difference
• 02:30 - 03:00 between plato or parmenides quest for divine matters and the seemingly so much more humble attempts of socrates at defining solon's unseen measures that bind and determine human affairs in this difference we are not interested here although it's historical and political and philosophical relevance is very great its political relevance is even greater what matters in our context is that in
• 03:00 - 03:30 both instances the thought is concerned with things invisible but indicated by appearances the stark sky above us are the deeds of men that is with invisibles which are present in the visible world very much like the americans walking among men through the battles around toy and the chief thing to be noted about
• 03:30 - 04:00 these matters that arousal and are then transformed into thoughts is that they always concern something admirable something to be affirmed and confirmed plato clearly thinks it simply observed to ascribe ideas to them in these cases he says the things are just the things we see all else that it is better to retreat at this point for fear of falling into a
• 04:00 - 04:30 bottomless pit of nonsense all that is from the parameters he then points out to socrates who there's a young socrates that he is still young and that later on he will not despise such objects but the difficulty is not resolved and the question never again raised by plato we are not interested here in the
• 04:30 - 05:00 doctrine of ideas or our interest only to the extent that one could demonstrate that the notion of ideas occurred to plato because of beautiful things and would never have occurred to him had he been surrounded by nothing but trivial and undignified objects now in the attempt to enumerate and identify some of the sources of non-cognitive thinking
• 05:00 - 05:30 i have emphasized on purpose the element of admiration which we encounter so powerfully in great philosophy and pre-philosophical thought and can trace not as a matter of influence but of ever repeated original experience throughout the history of philosophy i'm not at all sure that this runs counter to present day experiences in this
• 05:30 - 06:00 matter but i'm quite certain that it does run counter to our common opinions on them common sense seems to suggest that even though man's extremity may no longer be god's opportunity it still is especially when it comes to the so-called ultimate question the opportunity of thought and in view of the peculiarities
• 06:00 - 06:30 of this kind of thinking which moves among invisibles hence leaves the world of appearances out of its own accord does not this opinion make much more sense to put it bluntly we are not the romans right when they said philosophy was only for good for old people who were to disappear from this world anyhow very soon and should not the first impulse for
• 06:30 - 07:00 thought be an impulse to escape a world that has become unbearable you will remember this famous world of hegel about the relation of thought or as he said a philosophy to reality from the preface of the philosophy of right philosophy as a thought of the world appears only when actuality has been completed when philosophy paints its gray and gray
• 07:00 - 07:30 then has a shape of life grown old by philosophy it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood the owl of minerva spreads its wing with a falling of dusk and before as well as after he wrote these lines he said the same even more poignantly less equivocally in his first published book the need for philosophy arises when the unifying power has disappeared from the
• 07:30 - 08:00 life of men when the opposites have lost the living tension of their relatedness in their mutual interdependence and have become autonomous sounds a bit like yeats out of this unity of being torn apart arizer saw the need for reconciliation and smiling is the qualities with darkness as the philosophy
• 08:00 - 08:30 and in the late lectures on the history of philosophy he again insisted that philosophy appears on the scene when a break has occurred in the real world the mind is discovered as the interior realm into which men can escape when the real world no longer satisfies them the great example is of course plato and aristotle the coming of asia philosophy immediately after the disaster of the peloponnesian war
• 08:30 - 09:00 in hegel this notion about the existential route of thinking is deeply equivocal it can signify that the meaning of events is revealed only at the end a thought we have quoted already in homers and pinned us notion of the back and in solen's conviction that no man can be praised happy before his death but it can also indicate that it is a disintegration of reality and the
• 09:00 - 09:30 resulting disunity of men and world that derive men into thinking arousing them the need for philosophy namely the need for another more meaningful word this letter thinking springing from the desire to escape from the world is probably no less old than the roots we tried to discover in the case
• 09:30 - 10:00 but it found its classic expression much later among the greeks and the romans who lived amid the changing fortunes of the roman empire it was during these long centuries that philosophy became what according to public opinion it still is something you turn to in catastrophe the medicinal animal the medicine for your mind as ancestral and it began in the last century of the
• 10:00 - 10:30 roman republic when lucretius and cicero transformed greek philosophy into something essentially roman and that meant among other things something essentially practical thinking consists according to epithetus the greek slave and probably the best most acute mind among the stoics
• 10:30 - 11:00 thinking consists of the correct use of our imagination the only thing which have we have in our power everything else comes from the outside and compels us we need only deny the impact of these necessities and nothing will be able to recapture us i must die says the dictators but mess i also die sigh i can't help being chained
• 11:00 - 11:30 but can't i help weeping send into exile but why not go laughing in good spirits you want to know my secret i won't say it this is in my power you threaten to handcuff me man what are you saying you can't handcuff me you manicle my hands you are threatening to behead me when did i say that my head could not be
• 11:30 - 12:00 cut off obviously these are not mere exercises and thinking but exercise and the power of the world of which evitas had made a kind of philosophical system this would be of considerable interest to us if we were here concerned with the phenomenon of the will in order to get a different mental ability whose chief characteristic is that it
• 12:00 - 12:30 speaks an imperative even when it commands nothing but our ability to think the goal is to annihilate reality insofar as it concerns me and the presumption the presupposition is as far as i'm concerned everything that is depends in its reality upon my recognition terminologically speaking
• 12:30 - 13:00 it is not only being is distinguished from all particular entities that manifests itself in thinking as heidecker says non-being is also thinkable if they will command the mind if i really find the word unbearable it's no longer being but nothingness that manifests itself in thinking to be sure in this extremity thinking is no longer on its own
• 13:00 - 13:30 it has become a mere instrument that does the bidding of the will is its master but it may be noteworthy that this thinking ability of ours an ability that is at home among invisibles among things that whatever else they may be absent and therefore in need of imagination that the faculty of representation is enlisted at all when reality has become unbearable
• 13:30 - 14:00 for we certainly are more inclined to believe that the will in such an extremity will enlist our capacity of faith and produce a manifold beliefs in a year after rather than simply appeal to reason and imagination to think yourself so to speak out of the world now epictetus lived under the rule of nero but it was much earlier during the
• 14:00 - 14:30 last century before christ when cicero was the most cultivated amongst the romans had a foreboding of disaster that everything is gradually decaying and nearing its end worn out by old age as lucretius put it and discovered that one could think once a way out of the world and that such thought trains by no means as extreme as in the case of epitheters
• 14:30 - 15:00 we are likely to offer comfort and heart in the world as it is men who could teach such thought trends were highly esteemed lucretius called the be curious who after 200 years of his death became the master of his most gifted pupil a god because he was the first to invent a way of life which is now called wisdom and through his art rescued life from such
• 15:00 - 15:30 storms and so much darkness for our purpose however lucretius is not so good he does not insist on thinking but on knowing knowledge acquired by reason will dispel ignorance and thus destroy the greatest evil which is fear whose source is superstition a much more appropriate example is cicero's famous dream of scepter the end
• 15:30 - 16:00 of the republic their thinking is not inspired by fear in order to understand how extraordinary this conclusion of cicero's republic actually is how strange it thoughts must have sounded to roman ears we must for a moment remember the general background against which it was written philosophy had found a kind of a foster home in rome during the last century of
• 16:00 - 16:30 the republic and in this so thoroughly political society it had first of all to prove that it was good for something in the tuscarian disputation we find cicero's first answer it was a question of making home more beautiful and more civilized it was nothing essential it was a proper occupation for educated men when they had no more important things to worry
• 16:30 - 17:00 about it was not the question of divine matters founding and conserving political communities we had the activities most closely resembling the race of the gods now had it anything to do with immortality immortality was human as well as divine but it was not the property of individual men for whom death as caesar said is not only necessary but frequently desirable
• 17:00 - 17:30 immortality however was definitely the potential property of human communities if a commonwealth is destroyed and is extinguished it is as though the soul world perished and collapsed for communities death is neither necessary nor ever desirable it comes as punishment only for a community auto and can be so
• 17:30 - 18:00 constituted that it is eternal and what i just now quoted comes from the same dialogue the same treaties which ends with scipio's dream so it was not as though cicero had changed his mind as a matter of fact nothing even in the book itself prepares us for the end except perhaps the lamentations of book five only and words and because of our
• 18:00 - 18:30 advices and for no other reasons do we still retain and keep the public thing the thing itself we have lost long things and then comes a dream cypria africanus the victor of carthage tells of a dream he had shortly before he destroyed the city the dream showed me here after be aware
• 18:30 - 19:00 it was a dream where he meets his ancestor who tells him about cartage and also that after that he would have to restore the public thing the republic in rome as a dictator if he could escape being assassinated actually couldn't cesaro meant to say that cpu might have been able to save the republic and in order to do his job properly of saving the republic
• 19:00 - 19:30 to summon up the necessary courage he is told in his dream by his ancestor he should hold it as follows zeke have beto it's very difficult to hold as follows israel is the best translation for it it doesn't mean that this is something which you ought to believe that it means it will be good for you to think along this line
• 19:30 - 20:00 men who preserve the patriarch the fatherland are certain to find their final place in heaven where they will enjoy and will be blessed with eternal time for the highest god who go burns the world likes nothing better than the assemblies and the intercourses of men called commonwealth their governors and conservators returned to heaven after having left this world their job on earth is to
• 20:00 - 20:30 stand guard over the earth now this of course does not imply a christian promise of resurrection in a year after and although the divine wishes are still in the vein of roman traditions there sounds an ominous note in it it is as though man without such promise reward might no longer want to do
• 20:30 - 21:00 what the public thing expects them to do for and this is essential the rewards of this world sepia is told are not merely not enough to compensate you for your labors they are non-substantial and unreal if you think about them from the right perspective zip your high up in heaven is invited to look down on the earth and the earth appeared so small that he was pain to
• 21:00 - 21:30 see our empire as a mere dot where pony is told if the earth appears small to you from here then always look up to the sky so that you may be able to despise these human matters for what kind of celebrity is it that you may be able to attain in the conversation of men of what kind of glory among them don't you see how
• 21:30 - 22:00 narrow the space is in which glory and fame are localized and those who speak about us today how long will they talk and even if there were reason to trust tradition in the memory of future generation there will be natural catastrophes so that we cannot obtain a long lasting fame let alone an eternal one if you look up you will see how futile all this is
• 22:00 - 22:30 fame was never eternal and the oblivion of eternity extinguishes it i have given you the gist of these pages at some lengths to enable you to see the open contradiction of these proposed thought trains to what cicero in common with educated romans actually had always believed in and had expressed even in the same book in our context i wanted to show you an
• 22:30 - 23:00 example and an imminent one how certain thought trains actually aim at thinking oneself out of the world and that the way to do that is relativization relative to the universe you also spread a doubt what does it matter what happens on her relative to the immensities of time centuries are bad moments and oblivion will finally cover everything and everybody what does it matter what
• 23:00 - 23:30 men do relative to this the same for all everything specific at distinguishing loses its weight if there is no hereafter something that appears in cicero but not as an article of faith but as a moral hypothesis so to speak whatever you do or suffer it doesn't matter to think means here to follow a sequence of reasoning that lift will lift you to
• 23:30 - 24:00 a viewpoint outside the world of appearances as well as outside your own life philosophy is needed to compensate for the frustration of politics and more generally for life itself but this is a mere beginning of a tradition that reached its climax about five hundred years later at the end of the roman empire boisha's consolation of philosophy
• 24:00 - 24:30 one of the most popular books throughout the middle ages and hardly read by anyone today was written in a condition of extremity of which cicero had no premonition borisias a noble roman had fallen from the height of fortune found himself in jail and awaited his execution because of this setting the book has always been liked to the freedom a rather strange analogy socrates in the
• 24:30 - 25:00 midst of his friends after a trial in which he had been permitted to speak at length in his own defense awaiting an easy and painless death and polishes thrown into jail without trial absolutely alone after the death sentence pronounced at a mock trial at which he was not present let alone given the opportunity of a defense and now awaiting not the painless deaths
• 25:00 - 25:30 but a horrible death by slow and abominable doctrine although he is a christian it is philosophy and neither god nor christ who comes to consol and although he had spent a secret leisure as he tells us while still in high office in studying plato and aristotle he consoles himself now with typical
• 25:30 - 26:00 citronian and also other stoic thought trends except that what was mere relativization and sepia's dream is now turned into an almost violent annihilation the immense spaces of eternity to which human stone your mind annihilate reality as it exists for mortals the ever-changing nature of fortune annihilates our pleasures for even if
• 26:00 - 26:30 you enjoy what fortune has given you riches honest fame you are in constant fear of losing us fear annihilates all happiness everything you unthinkingly believe does exist exists not once you begin to think about it that is what philosophy is the goddess of consolation tells them and in this context the question of evil which hardly is touched upon by cicero
• 26:30 - 27:00 comes up the thought train conserving evil still rather primitive and borisias contains already all the elements which we later find in much more sophisticated and complex form throughout the tradition it runs as follows god is the final cause of everything that is god is the highest good cannot be the cause of evil everything that is must have a cause
• 27:00 - 27:30 since there are only apparent causes but no ultimate cause of evil evil does not exist the wicked ones says this philosophy are not only not powerful they are trivial they are not what you unthinkingly consider evil has its place in the art of the universe and insofar as it is it is necessarily
• 27:30 - 28:00 good its bad aspects are an illusion of the senses of which you can get direct of through thinking it is your historic advice what you negate by thought and thought is in your power cannot affect you thinking makes it unreal we are of course immediately reminded of epictetus glorification of what we today would call willpower and there's undeniably an element of
• 28:00 - 28:30 willing in this kind of thinking to think along these lines means to act upon yourself the only action left when all acting in the world has become futile what is so very striking about this thinking and late antiquity is that it has become centered exclusively about the self the answer to it in a world that is not yet completely out of joint
• 28:30 - 29:00 will save as john adams a deathbed it is said shows the emptiness of titles that may be shall laws and government which regulates sublunar things be neglected because they appear baubles at the hour of death