Hannah Arendt, born in 1906, was a Jewish philosopher from Germany who contributed important writings on totalitarianism and Jewish affairs during and after World War II. She taught philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where she died in 1975.
Hannah Arendt’s writings can offer a unique insight to the discipline of philosophy. In her work “The Life of the Mind” Arendt comments on philosophical ideas of time, appearance, and soul and mind relationships.
In terms of time, Arendt comments that the way an individual experiences time often depends on many different factors, particularly age. Arendt uses the example of a young child’s perception of time compared to that of a twenty-three year old. Arendt writes “A year that to a five-year-old constitutes a full fifth of his existence must seem much longer than when it will constitute a mere twentieth or thirtieth of his time on earth.” (Arendt, p. 21) In this sense, Arendt begins to tap into the idea of perception in terms of time. The two individuals (the young child and the young adult), both perceive the length of a year in vastly different ways based on their previous experiences.
Through her thoughts on time, Arendt also philosophized about the experiences of a person and the various factors that affect each individual. She compares life to a stage; “Living things make their appearance like actors on a stage set for them. The stage is common to all who are alive, but it seems different to each species, different also to each individual specimen.” (Arendt, p. 21) While all creatures experience the same air, ocean, and earth, each individual being lives a different life, feels different emotions, has different thoughts. As an extension of this idea, all humans have different minds, different souls, so then is there one universal truth? Perhaps, this is Arendt’s goal of philosophy.
One of Arendt’s most crucial philosophical ideas is the concept of alterity. Alterity, as Arendt discusses, is the perception that one cannot understand something in terms of itself; others have to exist to perceive the original object or idea. For example, if one were to say that they enjoy chocolate cake, there would have to exist someone who, conversely, does not care for chocolate cake. It does not make sense to say that one likes chocolate cake if there doesn’t exist someone who does not like it.
Arendt’s also contemplates on a similar idea of perception earlier in her writings. She explains that objects would not make logical sense if we, as thinkers, could not perceive them. In fact, she opens her writing with the following: “Nothing could appear, the word “appearance” would make no sense, if recipients of appearances did not exist—living creatures able to acknowledge, recognize and react to—in flight or desire, approval or disapproval, blame or praise—what is not merely there but appears to them and is meant for their perception” (Arendt, p.19). This idea stems from the concept of the knower and the known, or in simpler terms, the subject and the object. The known is only the object when put in terms of the knower, or the subject. For example, if one were to say, “This is my pen” the pen becomes the known and the speaker becomes the knower. The pen is known to the speaker (the knower) as his or her own pen.
Again, extending this idea, Arendt explains that the way in which others perceive you directly affects who you are. Because things only make sense when experienced, and therefore known, by others, it is logical that perceptions of an individual directly affect whom that person is.
What is Philosohy 