Abstract

CANTERO, María de los Ángeles. Truth and Meaning in The Life of the Mind, of H. Arendt. Rev. filos.open insight [online]. 2021, vol.12, n.26, pp.42-63.  Epub June 20, 2022. ISSN 2395-8936.  https://doi.org/10.23924/oi.v12i26.484.

This article is oriented to the analysis of the reflective itinerary made by Hannah Arendt in the first part of The Life of the Mind, dedicated to thinking. It stops, above all, on the distinction between truth and meaning that is made in this part, with a view in order to highlighting the inherent responsibility of human beings in relation to the understanding of the ultimate meaning of their existence and of the totality of reality. The text is organized in three sections. In the first one, Arendt’s ideas about the tensions and demands presented by the «departures and returns» that constitute the activity of thought in relation to appearances are examined. In the second one, the reflection focuses on the resignification operated by Arendt to the Kantian distinction between the faculties of «intellect», on the one hand and which corresponds to know the truth, and «reason», on the other hand, whose mental activity is thinking and understanding the meaning. The last section exposes the reasons for the centrality given by Arendt to the task of understanding the meaning that each human being and each generation must update by themselves and in an always new way.

Keywords : Intellect; meaning; reason; thinking; truth.

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