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.

[joshkinnear]

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!

[syedmehdi]

Hey Wes, I migrated to Canada in Jan 2018, started working as an UBER driver, and started listening to your lectures while 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 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">

[cheri]

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.

[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".'

[molletre]

"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.

[ekaterinenikolaeva]

I wish Hannah Arendt was here with us to give her insights on contemporary events. Extraordinary thinker.

[kylanmcdaniel]

Thank you for the video…I came across her books at a book store and bought them and then this video popped up in my feed…very providential.

Thank you for your depth sir.

[JoseVargas-bjwd]

Hi! Just heard this lecture on this superb human being and thinker and enjoyed it very much. (Feb 2025)

Thanks!

[plateoshrimp]

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

[DavidAndersen]

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

[erikschad]

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

[billbaker]

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

[PuckeyTee]

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

[robertojaramillo]

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.

[johnkinsey]

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

[diplomatt]

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.

[brucefranklin]

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...

[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."

[daviddorian]

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!