Abstract

The Life of the Mind culminates Arendt’s life work; a life of inquiry spent largely in the public realm she sought to reclaim. While an expressly philosophical work, it sheds much light on her earlier political formulations. At the least, it makes us re-think them. Her first volume on thinking prompts a re-examination of her characterization of Eichmann. Banality was controversial to many, and inadequate to others.