Hannah Arendt ( 1906 -1975 ) was a publicist and thinker Jew born in Germany . Her writings were of great importance for the development of political philosophy , although she refused to be called philosophical and preferred to associate her publications with the fields of political theory and history of ideas . Arendt coined the term "banality of evil" in the context of Nazism , when she covered the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel .
Following the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany and a short period of detention in 1933 , Hannah Arendt emigrated from Germany to France , and later to the United States . After being denied German citizenship in 1937 , she remained stateless until she received US citizenship in 1951, where she worked as a journalist and lecturer in college .
Arendt's thought represents the concept of pluralism in the political sphere. According to this concept, there is potential for freedom and equality between human beings, and it is important to adopt the point of view of others. According to her thought, in political organizations it is appropriate for more people who are able and willing to do so to participate at the concrete level. Due to this view Arendt was critical of representative democracy , preferring forms of government of councils or of direct democracy . In her articles on education, she objected to the free education approach and ideas about equal rights for children, arguing that it is necessary to return authority to the center of educational action and put the child in his or her place in the hierarchy by imposing authority.
Despite her reluctance to be called a "philosopher," Arendt's writings show an ideological confrontation with many of the philosophers of all time, such as Socrates , Plato , Aristotle , Emanuel Kant , with political philosophers such as Machiavelli and Montesquieu , as well as with her acquaintances and colleagues Martin Heidesger and Carr . Thanks to her independent thinking, her theory of totalitarianism and her existentialist thinking, her name stands out in contemporary discourse. Arendt based her writings on philosophical, political, and historical documents, as well as on biographies and literary works. Her way of interpreting texts, which was influenced in part by Heidegger, helped to position her as an independent thinker in the space between the various academic fields.
