Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode in its entirety. Citizens can get it here. Continuing from part one on “On the Nature of Totalitarianism” and On the Origins of Totalitarianism, ch. 13 (both from around 1953). In this preview, we further discuss the perverse logic of totalitarianism, how according to Arendt the ideology driving it becomes self-sustaining, generating Continue Reading …
Ep. 269: Arendt on Totalitarianism (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on “On the Nature of Totalitarianism” and On the Origins of Totalitarianism, ch. 13 (both from around 1953). We further discuss the logic of totalitarianism, how according to Arendt the ideology driving it becomes self-sustaining, generating ever-new enemies. How does this compare to (violence-free) scientism, logicism, objectivism, or anything else Continue Reading …
Ep. 269: Arendt on Totalitarianism (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On “On the Nature of Totalitarianism” (1953) and On the Origins of Totalitarianism, ch. 13 (added in 1953), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Totalitarianism was epitomized in fiction by 1984 but enacted in the real world in Russia under Stalin and what would have likely been the Continue Reading …
Ep. 269: Arendt on Totalitarianism (Part One for Supporters)
On “On the Nature of Totalitarianism” (1953) and On the Origins of Totalitarianism, ch. 13 (added in 1953), featuring Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Totalitarianism was epitomized in fiction by 1984 but enacted in the real world in Russia under Stalin and what would have likely been the end-point of Germany under Hitler had he been allowed to stay in power. Is this form of Continue Reading …
Authenticity from Heidegger to Fanon
Philosophical and psychological questions about authenticity go right back to the beginning of the Western intellectual tradition in the form of Socrates’s concern with the genuine self. Eight hundred years later, St. Augustine expressed a similar interest in the true self, but it was the slow shift in emphasis from divine to human values during the Renaissance, the Continue Reading …
Episode 125: Hannah Arendt on the Political & Private
On The Human Condition (1958), Prologue and Sections 1 and 2. How has our distinction between the private and public evolved over time? Arendt uses this history, and chiefly the differences between our time and ancient Athens, to launch a critique of modern society. In thinking about public, practical necessities like the economy, we've lost sight of the distinction between Continue Reading …
Episode 125: Hannah Arendt on the Political & Private (Citizen Edition)
On The Human Condition (1958), Prologue and Sections 1 and 2. How has our distinction between the private and public evolved over time? Arendt uses this history, and chiefly the differences between our time and ancient Athens, to launch a critique of modern society. In thinking about public, practical necessities like the economy, we've lost sight of the distinction between Continue Reading …
Topic for #125: Hannah Arendt on the Political, Private, and Social
You can watch the streams from the 9/25-9/26 Pittsburgh 2015 Continental Philosophy Conference on their YouTube Page, including our 9/26 episode discussion on Hannah Arendt. We have a separate (better) audio recording that will be released as a PEL episode in two installments on Oct. 12 and Oct. 19, and most likely combined with a different video to post our our YouTube Continue Reading …
Rereading Hannah Arendt’s “The Jew as Pariah”
In many ways, philosopher Hannah Arendt represents a range of twentieth-century Jewish experience. German, refugee, Holocaust survivor, and later, an American citizen, she was at times Zionist and at other times anti-Zionist, an author who celebrated Jewish culture but was later attacked by many Jews for her controversial views—e.g., her most contentious work, Eichmann in Continue Reading …
Hannah Arendt on Scientism
The question of the "pernicious influence" of scientism on modern life and philosophy gets raised fairly often here at PEL. I get the sense that Wes and Seth think the influence 'quite pernicious' while Mark thinks 'not so pernicious'. (Correct me if I'm wrong guys). So I thought it would be helpful to clarify what is implied by the term, so that we might open the way for some Continue Reading …