POLITICS, TOTALITARIANISM AND FREEDOM: THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF HANNAH ARENDT

FEW contemporary political thinkers have attempted as much as Hannah Arendt has in the course of her effort to formulate a philosophy capable of comprehending every important aspect of the human condition. Her endeavours have not indeed passed unnoticed; on the contrary, each of her major works has been extensively reviewed and the originality of her thought readily acknowledged. And yet, surprisingly, little attention has been paid to her work considered as a whole;' the complex of ideas which gives her essays their unity as a body of writing on political philosophy has been neglected. In the present paper an attempt will be made to rectify this state of affairs by directing attention away from the trees to the wood.