Hannah Arendt Bibliography for a Course at the New School The Life of the Mind, 206: Thinking

I stumbled upon Hannah Arendt’s course bibliography from when she taught “The Life of the Mind” at the New School in 1974–1975. The course was listed as 206: Thinking. I wish I had been alive to take it! In the meantime, here are the books she compiled for her students to read and ponder.

BIBLIOGRAPHY* (Compiled by Hannah Arendt for a course she taught at the New School)

  

Course Title: The Life of the Mind, 206: Thinking

ARISTOTLE Nicomachean Ethics, Liberal Arts Library — On the Soul, McKeon’s edition in Modern Library — Protreptikos, bilingual edition (Greek–German) of Ingemar During, Klostermann, Frankfurt/Main, 1969.

CICERO De Republica edition Loeb Library — Tusculan Disputations edition Loeb Library.

DESCARTES Meditations Cambridge University Press — The Passions of the Soul Cambridge University Press.

HEGEL Phenomenology of the Mind — Philosophy of History Dover Publications — Reason in History Liberal Arts edition.

HEIDEGGER Introduction to Metaphysics, Doubleday, 1961 — Identity and Difference, Harper and Row 1969 — What is called Thinking? Harper and Row 1969 — What is Metaphysics? complete text not available in English, see [unclear notes].

HERAKLITUS in G. S. Kirk & J. E. Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers, Cambridge University Press.

Hans JONAS “The Nobility of Sight” in The Phenomenon of Life, 1966.

Charles KAHN “The Greek Verb ‘to be’” in Foundations of Language, 1966.

KANT Critique of Pure Reason, only Transcendental Dialectic and Transcendental Doctrine of Method, translated by N. K. Smith — Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, translation N. K. Smith — Dreams of a Spirit Seer, New York 1969.

LEIBNIZ Confessio Philosophi, bilingual edition: Latin & German, Klostermann.

N. LOBKOWICZ Theory and Practice, Notre Dame University Press, 1967.

J. L. MEHTA The Philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Torchbooks.

MERLEAU‑PONTY The Essential Writings of Merleau‑Ponty, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich — The Visible and the Invisible, Evanston 1968 — Signs, Evanston 1964.

NIETZSCHE Gay Science. [Additional titles are obscured by notes.]

PARMENIDES [unclear] — see G. S. Kirk & J. E. Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers — Plato: The Republic (edition Cornford, Books I–VIII), Apology, Seventh Letter, Phaedo, Gorgias.

A. PORTMANN Animal Camouflage, Michigan Press 1959 — Animal Forms and Patterns: A Study of the Appearance of Animals, Schocken Books.

SNELL The Discovery of the Mind (Torchbooks 1970).

Gregory VLASTOS The Philosophy of Socrates, London 1971. [Unclear notes on further entries.]

Erle WEIL Probleme Kantiennes, Paris 1970.

WITTGENSTEIN Tractatus, bilingual edition with introduction of Russell — Philosophical Investigations — On Certainty, London 1961.

N.b.: The bibliography presented here is transcribed from a facsimile of the original.

PDF Copy for Printing

Quotation: On Those Who Blindly Persecute Others

Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Jesus, the Nazarene (Luke 23:34)

Alternative thinking:
Or should we? Why is their ignorance a condition for forgiveness? When Jesus says this line in the Gospel of Luke, it is at the moment the Roman soldiers tear off his clothing to ready his body for crucifixion. They also take his clothes and "cast lots" for who will get what of Jesus' meager possessions. It is a brutal scene, one that includes the crowd who shout "He saved others; let him save himself . . .".
The crowd represents us —
the humanity that denied Jesus. So Jesus is talking to us in this passage. On a broader note, Jesus is referring to what Hannah Arendt called the "banality of evil." The Roman Soldiers, the crowd, Pontius Pilate, the temple priests, and those who betrayed him — were they all calculating killers, hell-bent on ridding the world of a man from Nazareth who claimed he was the son of God? Arendt's argument is that evil is ground down to its basest, most formless level. We do not know the two soldiers who tear off his clothes and who cast lots — but they are the best representatives of the banality of evil in the story of Jesus. The brutality is so harsh, so physically brutal — it lays bare the extent of evil as this persistent "thing" that can materialize in a moment. 
Jesus forgives. And I am not sure why. 
Their crime is not something to be explained. To rationalize. And perhaps Jesus knows this. And accepts it. But doesn't condone it. Freed from it. We see it. As evil. For what it is. A heinous crime. Perpetrated against another human being. The woman battered and beaten in the park. A child killed by a stray bullet. A woman who has died alone. Violence perpetrated by hatred and racism. Jesus says, "Forgive them. They know not what they do." But he did not say, forget.   
Note: The translation from Luke's Gospel is the King James Version of the New Testament

PDF Copy for Printing

Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash