Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil: Political Thinkers in Dialogue

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Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil were two of the most compelling political thinkers of the 20th century who, despite having similar life-experiences, developed radically distinct political philosophies. This unique dialogue between the writings of Arendt and Weil highlights Arendts secular humanism, her emphasis on heroic action, and her rejection of the moral approach to politics, contrasted starkly with Weils religious approach, her faith in the power of divine Goodness, and her other-centric ethic of suffering and affliction. The writings here respect the profound differences between Arendt and Weil whilst pulling out the shared preoccupations of power, violence, freedom, resistance, responsibility, attention, aesthetics, and vulnerability. Without shying away from exploring the more difficult concepts in these philosophers' works, Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil also aims to pull out the relevance of their writings for contemporary issues.

Author Bio

Kathryn Lawson is a Researcher at Queens University in Kingston, Canada. She contributes to the online archive project on Simone Weil, Attention and is the author of several book chapters on continental philosophy, religion and Arendt and Weil. Joshua Livingstone is a Researcher at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is author of a forthcoming book chapter on Hannah Arendt.