Product Description

The author?s final work, presented in a one-volume edition, is a rich, challenging analysis of man?s mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging. Edited by Mary McCarthy; Indices.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50905 in Books
• Published on: 1981-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 521 pages

Customer Reviews

A refuge of delight for the thoughtful reader
I came to this book still quite skeptical of Arendt's writing style and intellectual caliber; several years earlier I had attempted to read her book 'The Human Condition' and it underwhelmed me with its stilted writing style. But I was pleasantly surprised and even delighted almost from the first few pages of this work. This book was a complete intellectual delight, relatively easy to digest, but extremely well written, without a trace of arrogance or stylistic awkwardness. This is no doubt due to the expert assistance given Arendt by her editor Mary McCarthy.

While Arendt had originally planned to write a three-part work, on Thinking, Willing, and Judging, she only lived to complete the first two sections. But since she associates Thinking with the past and Willing with the future, it seems fitting to limit the book to these two concepts. (There is a short appendix containing lecture notes from a series she had given on Kant's Critique of Judgment, but I don't recommend it; it's very rough and hard to read.)

A large part of the first section on Thinking is devoted to Greek philosophy. She throws around a fair amount of Greek that, for the most part, is translated or understandable from the context. The second section is heavy on medieval philosophy with healthy doses of Latin all over the place. This was the more interesting section from my point of view, for there are lengthy discussions of Augustine and Duns Scotus. Towards the end of the second section she deals with Nietzsche and Heidegger. Heidegger (as you might expect) is given a full and sympathetic treatment.

Reading this book has been an experience that I won't soon forget. In fact, I am suffering withdrawal symptoms from it as I write this review. The book was a one-of-a-kind intellectual home to me. I will also add, once you get to the end of the Willing section, you may as well stop reading. Editor Mary McCarthy's Postface is rather self-centered and repetitious, not really worth one's time. And the final unedited lectures of Arendt on Kant's Critique of Judgment are rough, sketchy, and very unlike the polished prose of the earlier part of this great book.

If you are looking for a sophisticated work that will engage your mind but will not overwhelm your intellect, then this is the book. It will easily become a refuge of delight for any thoughtful reader.

A great Testament to Arendt's genius
`Life of the Mind,' while incomplete, nevertheless serves as a phenomenal exegesis of Western thought from one of the leading political and metaphysical thinkers of our era. Arendt breezes through an exorbitant quantity of philosophy with remarkable clarity and grace in this two-volume work. In it she provides a critical review of classical thought, including Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Dons Scotus, leading all the way up to Kant and Rousseau. She also explicates the notion of the Will in Nietzsche, and then Heidegger's `Will-Not-to-Will' in his later thought. It is possible that Arendt will remain among the greats in Western philosophy, political theory, and journalism more broadly. Her depth of knowledge and insight and capacity to read a text with fresh eyes will astonish you. Also included in the second volume of the text is one of the most cogent explications of Heidegger's Being and Time you are ever likely to find.

Appearances and Being
Arendt's premise - assuming that Chapter 1 is the place to start and the book is not a suspense novel, that "Being and Appearing coincide," and that nothing exists that does not presume a spectator, made it difficult for me to continue the book. She maintains, up front, that Being and Appearance are prominent (she refers to them as part of the "two-world theory") philosophical fallacies. What a place too begin?! And so dogmatically! She goes on to use the internal organs of a man as an example of "behind the appearances" (my quote marks), then spins off additional abstractions (as if philospophy needs them) such as semblance and authentic appearance and process. Later, she pronounces "thought without speech is inconceivable"; oh boy.

I found her discussion of truth and meaning incomplete and confusing, if not, in places, just plain incorrect. Arendt assumes "meaning" conveys how something arrives at being (using Kant's texts), and contrasts it (meaning) with truth, writing that there can be only factual truths, disposing of propositional (logical) truths and mathematical truths, seemingly declaring that these a priori artifacts of reasonng can only be evaluated meaningful or meaningless.

While obviously a scholar, Arendt is neither clear nor convincing in this book. She does make her points at places: describing the futility of adopting solipsism - and Wittgenstein's role in promoting it interesting enough.

Her use of the senses and the superficial appearances of the world as the foundation of a book on thinking is itself superficial. Her writing is not however; it is althogether hard-headed.