Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Seyla Benhabib is Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University, and director of the Program in Ethics, Politics, and Economics.It is difficult to do justice to the rich texture of Benhabib's argument and interpretation, which is a magisterial dialectic between modernity and existentialism, reformism and utopianism, and fundamentalism and perspectivalism. Benhabib's book remains one of the most stimulating of the recent spate of books on Arendt.
Women's Philosophy Review
Benhabib's discussions. . . reflect a meticulous scholarship and a deep sensitivity to the texts which is a pleasure to read.
Political Studies Review
On the now quite long shelf of Hannah Arendt studies, only a few matter. This is one.
- Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Haverford College; author of Anna Freud: A Biography,
A brillant, historically sensitive and deeply sympathetic but not at all uncritical account of the entire range of Arendt's thought. It weaves its way through Arendt's personal experiences, philosophical influences, and cultural contexts with remarkable subtlety and ease. Few books on Arendt offer a more vivid and reliable account of the unity of her life and thought.
- Bhikhu Parekh, University of Westminster,
Seyla Benhabib's remarkable and nuanced book is the first to give Hannah Arendt's ambivalent relationship to modernity the complex and critical assessment it deserves. Written with force and clarity, this study is indispensable for any serious encounter with Arendt's thought.
- Anson Rabinbach, Princeton University,
A strikingly original interpretation of Hannah Arendt that brings into the foreground the significance of Arendt's biography of Rahel Varnhagen, Arendt's concern with Jewish politics, and her attempt to understand the emergence of totalitarianism. This provides the context for a fresh reading of <i>The Human Condition</i> and <i>The Life of the Mind</i>, as well as the complex relation between Arendt and Heidegger. Anyone interested in the recent resurgence of international interest in Arendt and her relevance for contemporary political thought will find Seyla Benhabib's comprehensive and judicious analysis invaluable.
- Richard J. Bernstein, Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research,
Benhabib is an excellent guide to the uninitiated, offering context, central themes, and concise yet sophisticated philosophical analysis in accessible prose.
Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy
Benhabib's great homage, which makes us familiar with Arendt's thought, has a paradoxical effect: one learns to appreciate the distance which is expressed in this sovereign interpretation. One will not be able to come closer to the philosophical hedgerose, Hannah Arendt
Die Zeit
Chapter 1 Introduction: Why Hannah Arendt?
Chapter 2 The Pariah and Her Shadow: Hannah Arendt's Biography of Rahel Varnhagen
Chapter 3 Jewish Politics and German "Existenz Philosophy": The Sources of Hannah Arendt's Thought
Chapter 4 The Destruction of the Public Sphere and the Emergence of Totalitarianism
Chapter 5 The Dialogue With Martin Heidegger: Arendt's Ontology of The Human Condition
Chapter 6 The Art of Making and Subverting Distinctions: With Arendt, Contra Arendt
Chapter 7 From the Problem of Judgment to the Public Sphere: Rethinking Hannah Arendt's Political Theory
Modernity and Political Thought authors examine the thought of figures in the history of political philosophy in light of their possible contributions to our understanding of modernity, the way in which it is constituted, and the problems and promises that remain latent within it. Although the authors also seek to reconcile the demands of interpretation with historical fidelity, the main goal is to illuminate the contemporary significance of the history of political thought, to examine past thinking as though it were present, and to interrogate think-ers with respect to how their thought is implicated formatively in what we have become.
Series Editors: Morton Schoolman and Kennan Ferguson