Hannah Arendt and Politics - (Thinking Politics) by Maria Robaszkiewicz & Michael Weinman (Paperback)

About the Book

Offers a new perspective on Arendt as a political thinker as well as a political actor

Book Synopsis

Hannah Arendt has been classified as a critical theorist, a phenomenologist, an anti-feminist, a feminist ally, a democratic theorist, a republican theorist, a Heidegerrian, and a nostalgic Hellenophile. This book responds to these perspectives in two ways. First, we recognize that one can legitimately derive all these positionings from one or another of her writings; second, we insist nevertheless and precisely because all these approaches play some role in her work that her readers ought to follow her own claim that she 'does not belong to any club'. Instead, we introduce her works as exercises in political thinking, treating her as a dialogue partner, whose judgments and opinions remain open for reflection and discussion.

From the Back Cover

Presents a new perspective on Hannah Arendt as a political thinker and actor This book uncovers the deeply practical aspect of Arendt's thinking and introduces her works as exercises in political thinking. Treated in this way, Arendt becomes the reader's dialogue partner, whose judgements and opinions remain open for reflection and discussion. The book provides insights into not only her theory and its current relevance, but also her practice of reflective judgement. Maria Robaszkiewicz is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Paderborn, Germany. Michael Weinman is Professor of Philosophy at Bard College Berlin.

Review Quotes

Robaszkiewicz and Weinman provide an invaluable map through Arendt's political though, helping the reader to understand her relevance to contemporary debates. Both scholarly and accessible, this is an important work.

--Timothy Secret, University of Winchester

About the Author

Maria Robaszkiewicz is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Paderborn University. She is the author of Übungen im politischen Denken: Hannah Arendts Schriften als Anleitung der politischen Praxis (Springer, 2017) and the editor, with Tobias Matzner, of Hannah Arendt. Challenges of Plurality (Springer, 2021). Robaszkiewicz publishes widely in social and political philosophy and feminist theory and is a member of the editorial board of HannahArendt.net.

Michael Weinman is Senior Lecturer of Political Science and Jewish Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. He is an interdisciplinary scholar and teacher whose interests focus on ancient Greek thought, modern Jewish thought and the history of political thought, as well as the intersections of these three fields. Weinman is the author or editor of six earlier books, most recently Hannah Arendt and Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), co-authored with Maria Robaszkiewicz, and The Emergence of Illiberalism (Routledge, 2020), co-edited with Boris Vormann.