The Life of the Mind (1978) by Hannah Arendt is an examination of thinking and how it connects moral, social, and political landscapes. In the work, Arendt highlights three of the mind’s activities—thinking, willing, and judging—and questions whether the active processes of thinking are directly related to morality. In her study, she examines the history of philosophical thought on the three modes of the mind and interrogates how the historical evolution of how these modes were defined helped to shape humans’ relationship with good and evil. The work explores The Moral Importance of Thinking, The Primacy of Appearance, and The Plurality of Experience and Responsibility. 

Arendt was a political theorist who wrote The Human Condition, an exploration of the vita activa—the active life—as it unfolds in a contemporary age marked by totalitarianism. Her work was highly influenced by her experiences as someone born into a German Jewish family who was forced to flee Germany in 1933. The Life of the Mind functions as a response to The Human Condition, centering the vita contemplativa, or the action of the mind.

This guide uses the 1978 paperback published by Harcourt, Inc.

Summary

Political theorist Hannah Arendt was still working on The Life of the Mind at the very end of her life. She divided the work into three volumes, focused on Thinking, Willing, and Judging. The first two parts were completed, but the first page of the third was in her typewriter when Arendt died suddenly from a heart attack in 1975. Although the manuscript was not finished, Arendt’s close friend Mary McCarthy edited the book for publication. This guide covers the first two volumes, although some new critical works offer a final volume based on Arendt’s notes.

In The Life of the Mind, Arendt separates herself from the philosophical tradition, arguing that her work is centered on the collective experiences of humanity and the ways in which philosophical ideas translate into worldly realities. Arendt is critical of professional thinkers who elevate the inner realm of the mind and Being above worldly matters. Therefore, her focus on thinking is rooted in a desire to understand the relationship between the mind and the world of appearances. She identifies three activities of the mind and explores whether these mental actions may lead people away from the thoughtlessness that characterizes evil: Thinking, willing, and judging. Since she was never able to complete the third, only the first two are included in this edition. 

Arendt’s dive into the subject matter of the vita contemplativa began as a series of lectures at Stanford University and initially functioned as a response to her earlier work, The Human Condition. After witnessing and analyzing the trial of Adolf Eichmann and detailing her findings in Eichmann in Jerusalem, Arendt questioned whether thinking and morality are intrinsic. In Volume 1, Arendt paints a new picture of thinking as a type of mental activity, one which moves individuals away from the thoughtlessness associated with evil. She details her separation from the philosophical canon, arguing for an approach to the subject of thinking which emphasizes the worldly outcomes associated with thinking and thoughtlessness. Arendt is critical of professional thinkers who emphasize Being and the search for truth over the world of appearances and meaning. Thinking, she argues, is the creation of meaning, and it is impossible for anyone to be fully separated from the world of appearances.

Volume 1, Part 1 highlights the difference between Being and appearance. Arendt applies a genealogical approach to understanding how philosophical ideas about appearance evolved over time, finding their roots in Plato and Socrates. Arendt argues that the primacy of metaphysics of appearance began with Greek philosophy. She explains that thinking is a withdrawal from the world of appearances, but it is still connected. One cannot think without having experience in the apparent world, and one must always return to it.

In Volume 1, Part 2, Arendt examines the rise of scientific reason and the continued separation of the mind and the apparent world. She argues that all thinking is born out of the relationship with the apparent world, suggesting that Being is reliant upon plurality. Language is attached to thinking, and metaphor is the greatest tool humans have for expressing inner contemplation. On the other hand, the body expresses the inner workings of the soul. Volume 1, Part 3 questions what it is that makes humans think. Arendt highlights Plato’s association of thinking with wonder. She explores the trajectory of thinking in philosophy in both Greek and Roman literature. She determines that thinking both creates a framework for morality and for dangerous ideology. Volume 1, Part 4 explores how thinking is situated in space and time.

Volume 2 is centered on willing. In Volume 2, Part 1, Arendt distinguishes willing from thinking and explores the problems with how willing has been viewed throughout the philosophical tradition. In Volume 2, Part 2, Arendt applies a historical study of the development of the concept of the Will. While willing is missing from Greek philosophy, its foundation exists, which is later expanded upon by Christianity. In Volume 2, Part 3, she explores whether willing or intellect should hold primacy and challenges German Idealism. Arendt determines that the mind is dependent upon the apparent world, and that political responsibility is born out of plurality and shared experience.