The Life Of The Mind

To understand Hannah Arendt’s theories in The Life of the Mind, readers must first become familiar with her previous works and how they serve as a foundation for the ideas presented in her final book. Arendt’s books are reflective of her social and historical context, dealing with the issues of fascism, evil, and power. As a thinker who repeatedly emphasized a separation between herself and philosophers—whom she claims abandon the world of appearances for a narrow focus on Being—Arendt’s focus on how the mind functions may seem like an abrupt shift into the philosophical world. However, Arendt emphasizes that her focus on the mind is rooted in her need to examine and understand the world rather than to develop philosophies that are separate from worldly experience. The catalyst for her quest to understand thinking is rooted in this context.

Arendt describes the distinction between her work and the canon of philosophy by drawing on Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” She claims that philosophers concern themselves almost exclusively with what is outside the cave while ignoring the lived experiences and constructed realities of those living inside. Arendt attempts to merge the inner and outer cave by arguing that each has insight to offer the other.