The Germans: Hannah Arendt

This lecture explores the life and thinking of one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. Presented by Wesley Cecil PhD but not at Peninsula College because, alas, all gathering have been temporarily suspended. Hopefully the lectures, with audience, will return in the not too distant future.
For more lectures and information check out www.wescecil.com

[@joshkinnear9509]

Wes Cecil, I've been listening to all your lectures multiple times each since I was 17 when I realized that I couldnt afford go to college for philosophy and I'm so so so very happy that your continuing to do this in this time of isolation. I look forward to your lectures more then you know and recommend them to friends constantly. Stay safe and please keep posting!

[@wescecil3920]

Dear josh, thanks for the comment and remember, philosophy as a field of study has only existed for about 200 years - for the other 4000 or so everyone just chose to study it. Being a philosopher and going to school for philosophy are very different things - so don't count yourself out!

[@joshkinnear9509]

Wow thank you so much for replying! Means alot, and yes, I'll never stop my personal study of it all including my own thoughts and writing cause it's always give my life so much meaning. Ignorance might be bliss, but I'm way past all that at this point!

[@Vicky-zr1pb]

Josh, I am also self studying philosophy at home for over 2 years now. I found Prof Mark Thorsby very good as well. Also Crash Course has a great philosophy series and I also recommend watching their world history and world history 2. It helps to understand what the philosophers worlds were like. I recommend are Prof Richard Bulliet Columbia University ‘History of the World’ only after the Crash Course History series’ and Will Durant’s ‘Story of Philosophy’. All can be found on KZbin. Good Luck and enjoy.

[@syedmehdi8793]

Hey Wes, I migrated to Canada in Jan 2018, started working as an UBER driver, and started listening to your lectures while driving......the wisest decision of my life. I come from a Shia family in Pakistan, so you can imagine my bias towards religion. Now I have started asking questions, which no one thought existed, and people from my community have started branding me as an outsider.......thanks to you. Philosophy has opened up new vistas of intellectual thinking, and I am glad that people like you exist in this world. "God works in mysterious ways">

[@sidrarashid6600]

Feeling good to have come across your comment while indulging in philosophy on a sad quiet night far away from homeland.

[@asdkfjasdl_kfjas]

I like this insightful quote at 18:52: 'That's the scary thing about evil: it's not the raving sociopath, it's not the mass murderer; it's the person who's doing the filing for the mass murdering, it's the person who's doing the train schedules, it's the person who makes it all possible and then says: "well I was just doing my job".'

[@cheri238]

Thank you, Professor Wes Cecil. Hannah Arendt's mind was too fabulously rich to be contained that way. She did not want a system to be contained that way. She was a genius. Period!!!

[@dreamcatchersong]

I love this woman, utterly fearless. I have only read the Portable Arendt (not all) and parts of Eichmann in Jerusalem but, oh boy, does she make sense or what. I would like to read more and listen to more of her stuff. I recently discovered an hour long lecture she gave in NY on Walter Benjamin - so well put together - every word and phrase carefully thought out, and so not boring. Mind you, I didn't understand everything she was saying, far from it, but that was my limitation, nothing to do with her lecture. Unlike many great thinkers, Arendt was trying to be understood by everyone in her audience.

[@erikschad179]

I really like this format. Would love to see it more often.

[@plateoshrimp9685]

Thanks for this! Really appreciate having something to think about during this stressful boredom.

[@syedmehdi8793]

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

[@molletre9606]

"To create a situation in which individuals respond to lies, by thinking that its great that you´ve made a lie". Very much sums up the age of lies, fake news and misinformation that haunts this world since over a decade. Hannah was always well ahead of her time.

[@chopin65]

This video is an excellent introduction to her work. Thanks professor.

[@billbaker6880]

Thanks Wes. Glad your safe and still doing lecture pieces. Take care

[@robertojaramillo9945]

Wes, I'm so glad I discovered your channel. It is just pure joy to listen to your lectures while at work or even just on a walk. I love learning about these amazing thinkers and the way you present them, the manner in which you speak about them and their work, just shows that you're really passionate about the material and that really comes across. You are an unbelievable gem of a teacher. Thank you.

[@PuckeyTee]

Thankyou for continuing the lectures whilst self isolating wes, setting a good example. Listening from Melbourne Australia Stay safe :)

[@ArtOfWarStudios1]

Thanks for continuing to post Wes! I've listened to all of your lectures and consider your channel to be my favorite on KZbin. Wishing heath and safty to and yours. Much gratitude.

[@johnkinsey2735]

Thank you for doing this, despite the surreal circumstances we find ourselves in

[@brucefranklin1317]

People over the years have handed us a blueprint regarding how to behave how to be brave and good... lets use all of them to live today... we need to try to be good always while running the world... to care for each other... shes a good one... peace to all...

[@daviddorian4282]

More power to you Wes! Thanks for continuing your lectures in these circumstances. Absolutely love them! Please if you get a chance and have the interest do more middle eastern, especially Persian thinkers/philiosophers/poets (Sohrevardi, Rumi, Attar, Khayam, Sadegh Hedayat) old and modern if you get a chance. Salute!

[@GrothausWoodworks]

Modern music is generally pretty vapid in its prose, but Arendt's approach reminds me one one of the few one-line gems of the era: "Before the truth will set you free... it'll piss you off."

[@Caroline-me6xt]

Thank you so much! I really enjoyed every word, you speak so clearly, I suscribed and I intent to listen to all your videos.

[@lantanalanta1709]

Thank you very very much! Grate voice, perfect pace, articulated style. I could understand everything even with my poor English! I must read her books!

[@jelly3374]

Wow I didn't know you did one on Arendt, she's been my absolute favorite political theorist for years now

[@TonyWinston]

Inspiring lecture, thanks

[@leeleeleelee420]

amazing thought-provoking lecture. you truly made me wanna go out and buy that penguin collection of hers immediately. thank you as always, wes!

[@Holaholaholaholahola265]

She was not raised in Germany but in Königsberg, a German city at the baltic sea and home of Kant.

[@stela7617]

of course she was raised in germany. königsberg was part of prussia which was german territory

[@moatazmattar4714]

God she is so relevant now

[@Johnconno]

How long has she been irrelevant?

[@barunmitra8778]

A fascinating introduction to Hannah Arendt. Particularly the discussion on Eichmann and the dehumanising impact of certain kind political narratives, from around 15.20 min to 35 min. How politics can help diffuse the distinction between truth and lies, right and wrong. An insight into how ordinary people can collude to incredible inhumanity under particular political climate. So relevant at present when populism and intolerance seem to be setting the stage for a civilisational clash within many societies.

[@ronaldoferreira594]

Thanks a lot. Great introduction to her mind. Greetings from Brasil.

[@Stroganoffskji]

Thank you Wes. I really liked this lecture, and I will read some Arendt! Regards from Sweden.

[@MultiFlymetothemoon]

Her dissertation was not on TA's love, it was on Augustinian concepts of love...

[@michaelmonkey6541]

Thank you......

[@HocirOnatseba]

I think her thesis is not about St. Aquinas. It is about St. Augustine's theory of love. This is later published as a book.

[@annennis4699]

June 6. OMG this lecture is playing out in real time. "Segregation. Social choice. Banality of evil. Propoganda. Lies are part of the message." Ye gad.

[@johnsteed5754]

Great lecture, but I think Arendt's dissertation was on Augustine's theory of love. Thanks.

[@michaelcollins7192]

Love and Saint Augustine was Arendt's doctoral thesis, not centered on Aquinas.

[@dominicberry5577]

I always love Wes' lectures, but I notice that after 11 hours, 3 people gave thumbs down. What. Is. That? What did they actually want? Do they have unique conceptions of Arendtian existentialism in radical opposition to the rest of us? Were they searching for another Hannah Arendt, who does a vlog about windurfing? "Lil' Hannah Arendt", the rap artist? I don't get it.

[@ocpunk4024]

Thank you! That was a wonderful lecture. I think of the types & quality of character similarly. I'm not sure if its identifying the same area of concern, but for myself this difference stands out when observing types of humor. There is a difference in people's sense of humors, young and old, there are those that laugh at the expense of another and those that do not tend to think humiliating another is particularly funny. But even the common type or slap stick style of walking into a wall .... some find it gut splitting.

[@GhadeerBaqer]

Thank you great content.

[@diplomatt22]

Great lecture as usual Professor, slight disagreement with the statement from 40:29. Look at her last (unfinished) book, The Life of the Mind. How thought inherently leads to action, which ultimately makes you a better person.

[@kabbalisticteddy]

So what is the question?? Yes. Go on with being an Anglican. It is an awesome thing. Hannah seemed to have the most developed bullshit detector I have ever encountered :)

[@williambuysse5459]

Her dissertation was on Augustine's concept of love and not Aquinas!

[@dancollier4632]

Nice One Ces-O....greetings from down unda!

[@rozalialuks6583]

Excelent. Thank you! Isn't this the right time to revisit Hannah- maybe YOU! - to Reflect on Hannah's theories/thoughts x The Massacre of Palestinians by Jews? #judeuslivresporPalestinaLivre note: Your ability to cut and paste - without diminishing Hannah's brilliance is admirable.

[@cfshkvbklvnjsdzjk6164]

Wasn't Arendt's dissertation on Augustine, not Aquinas?

[@lisadioguardi5742]

I was just checking to see if someone else mentioned this.

[@thefraug3827]

10:00 Thinking about the kids, I think about what we just did to these children the last couple years. Now that was a great example of the Banality of Evil, no?

[@Great_Olaf5]

What's the title of that first essay you were reading from?! I'm trying to find it so I can get the essay from my library, but looking up all the essays she wrote doesn't help much.

[@Pietari55]

Very much illustrating the political and media reality in the USA today.

[@cyberpunkworld]

The three Rituals I have studied were stolen from females that read the Bible, through these means. Unavoidable move. All due respects sir.

[@thomasvieth578]

I'm very apprehensive about this lecture, because I know that you will pronounce her name wrongly, but for future reference, her name is pronounced AHHHrend

[@robertburatt5981]

I would argue similarly against ORGANIZED religion having a valid place in a true democracy, distinct from a religious spirituality which can have a valid place in a true democracy.

[@josephm.6453]

You don't sound okay. Everything fine on your side of the world?

[@wescecil3920]

Feeling good, thanks for asking. Turns out, eating peanut butter and celery before you try and lecture is a very poor decision! Life lessons.

[@Johnconno]

😂

[@Menapho]

These are not difficult times!

Well he knew all about supply chains😂

But closer to home, can Israelis put themselves in the shoes of Palestinians or think from their standpoint? 😂

[@Joyparadart]

4:28

[@kuroazrem5376]

Having read her book On the Origin of Totalitarianism, I gotta say she was a racist, especially towards black people.

[@thomasriedel7583]

She wasn't born as a woman. Believe me.