Deep Thinking

Essays in Understanding, 

1930-1954 

by Hannah Arendt

“Words used for the purpose of fighting lose their quality of speech; they become clichés. The extent to which clichés have crept into our everyday language and discussions may well indicate the degree to which we not only have deprived ourselves of the faculty of speech, but are ready to use more effective means of violence than bad books (and only bad books can be good weapons) with which to settle our arguments.”   ― Hannah Arendt, Essays in Understanding, 1930-1954

This collection of essays addresses a broad range of subjects from Augustine to Kierkegaard and beyond, with examinations of existentialism which are enriched by her personal connections to both Jaspers and Heidegger. One of the most important group of essays addresses the titular subject of understanding itself. While addressing questions such as what is the proper basis for morality when faced with "the breakdown of its structure", she uses a thought process that I found not dissimilar to that of Ludwig Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations.

She also considered the concept of "balance of power" both with regard to relations between nation states, but even more important she addresses the balance of power between branches of our constitutional government as based on the writings of Montesquieu among others. In addition she discusses the issue of fear in tyranny to which I would immediately draw comparisons with the thought of Machiavelli. This leads to raising questions like what is the nature of the "double standard "status of man as both citizen and individual".

One element that holds all of the essays together is the deep thinking of Arendt herself. This is evident in her method that continually goes back to the source of the issues and ideas under consideration referencing classical philosophy and religion where relevant. It is this deep thinking that makes this collection of essays essential for our consideration of how to understand the politics and ideological issues of the twenty-first century.

Portrait of Lenin

Lenin in Zurich

by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 Alexander Solzhenitsyn introduces Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the key character of his planned multi-volume chronicle of Russian revolutionary history, in his novel, Lenin in Zurich. In this fascinating biographical novel Solzhenitsyn explores and illuminates the important years 1914-17, drawing a gripping psychological portrait of the man who was the architect of the Revolution, with unrivaled knowledge of the events and individuals. From his arrest in Cracow and subsequent flight to Zurich at the outbreak of World War I to his departure for Russia in 1917 in a sealed train protected by the German government. 

Lenin in Zurich chronicles Lenin's frustrating exile in Switzerland, years in which he stood alone, without support from the deeply divided European socialist movement and isolated from his fellow revolutionaries. Solzhenitsyn investigates the private individual as well as the public figure.

The Encounter of Existence

I and Thou 

by Martin Buber

“This is the eternal origin of art that a human being confronts a form that wants to become a work through him. Not a figment of his soul but something that appears to the soul and demands the soul's creative power. What is required is a deed that a man does with his whole being..” ― Martin Buber, I and Thou

I and Thou is a key text in ethical, religious, and intellectual philosophy from the 20th century. It exhibits elements of each of those even though it isn't strictly a work of philosophy, religion, poetry, or mysticism. Its introspective, aphoristic tone could even be described as "theopoetic." The book also covers a wide range of topics, even though it is only a little over 200 pages long, such as modernity, human psychology, perception and consciousness, evil, ethics, education, spirituality, religious tradition, the natural world, biblical hermeneutics, the relationship between personal and communal fulfillment, the relationship between the divine and the human, and so forth.

The book is not weighed down with obscure allusions and convoluted reasoning, but rather it is profoundly affected by and engages in an implicit dialogue with Kant, Hegel, Marx, Feuerbach, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, not to mention the mystic traditions of Hasidism. Buber's writings are still regarded as a turning point in existentialist philosophy.

I and Thou is a deceptively straightforward idea, which is that all existence is encounter, despite its weighty heritage. Additionally, it makes for a fascinating, stimulating, and enjoyable read.