The Critical Edition of Hannah Arendt’s Complete Works presents a vital new view of this eminent political thinker. For the first time, all of Hannah Arendt’s published and unpublished works are being made available in a philologically reliable scholarly edition with critical commentary. Two additional features make this edition distinct: Arendt wrote and published nearly all of her books and essays in English and in German; this fundamental multilingualism can now be fully taken into account by future Arendt scholarship. Further, the Critical Edition is designed as an innovative hybrid project, appearing both in print as books and in an open access web portal enabling new technologically supported textual analyses. Over two days of celebration, presentation, and discussion, the audience will be invited to learn about the new edition, to consider the place of editorial scholarship in academic and intellectual life, and to discover together this unknown Arendt.

The Life of the Mind was Hannah Arendt’s unfinished final work. In it, she focuses on three basic mental activities—thinking, willing, and judging—and their relation to the world of appearances and to the human capacity for moral and political action. The new critical edition makes available in print, for the first time, the text of the typescripts as Arendt left them, complemented by a wealth of previously unpublished material, detailed annotations, and extensive scholarly commentary. In this symposium, the editors will introduce this groundbreaking edition, offer three points of entry into the material, and invite the audience to join in a wide-ranging discussion about The Life of the Mind and its urgent contemporary import.

Thursday, February 20

Launch & Celebration: The Critical Edition of Hannah Arendt’s Complete Works
Library, Finberg House

5:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks
— Thomas Wild and Thomas Bartscherer (Bard College) with Anne Eusterschulte (FU Berlin) and Wout Cornelissen (RU Nijmegen)

5:10 Welcome Address
— Deirdre d’Albertis, Dean of the Faculty, Bard College

5:30 The Critical Edition of Hannah Arendt’s Complete Works
Presentation & Discussion
— Anne Eusterschulte, Thomas Wild

6:30 Reception

Friday, February 21

Symposium: Hannah Arendt’s The Life of the Mind
Olin 204

New Readings of Hannah Arendt: The Critical Edition & The Life of the Mind

9:30 The Task of Scholarly Editing Presentation & Panel Discussion
Hannah Arendt’s Works in a Hybrid Edition and a Plurality of Languages
— Thomas Wild with respondents Robert Cioffi (Classics & Literature, Bard College) and Olga Voronina (REAS & Literature, Bard College)

10:45-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 The Life of the Mind: An Introduction Presentation & Discussion
— Wout Cornelissen, Thomas Bartscherer, Anne Eusterschulte

12:00-1:30 Lunch

Three Pathways into The Life of the Mind

1:30-2:30 Summoning Witnesses: Arendt’s Practice of Quoting in her Last and Unfinished Book Project, The Life of the Mind
— Wout Cornelissen with respondent Jana Schmidt (German & Literature, Bard
College)

2:30-3:30 What is the “Life” of the Mind? Political Implications
— Anne Eusterschulte

3:30-3:45 Coffee

3:45 When are the Chips Down?
— Thomas Bartscherer

4:45 Concluding Discussion