Thanks to Tacuma, Gillian and, of course, Professors Falci and Goldsmith (and Soo, my partner in reading group crime) for attending the first meeting of our summer/fall reading group! We had a really interesting discussion that focused on the selections from Arendt's _Life of the Mind_.
Here are some of the main questions we thought about today. For those of you following along from afar, feel free to let these questions direct your thoughts (or not!).
1. What is Arendt's idea of consistency? What does she mean by positing consistency of the self in a system in which the self is always split (during thinking) in conversation?
2. What implications are there for how bounded and hidden an activity Arendt makes thinking out to be? -- Her distilling of individual into soul (separate from body, but the way in which emotion attaches to body) and mind form the foundation for how she conceives of thinking as removed, even, from body.
3. What are the special emergencies that make thinking into a political act?
4. Is thinking always a form of friction via negation? Is there any formulation, in Arendt's thinking, in which thinking contributes positively to society?
5. We also talked about how the larger project of the book is an extended refutation of Plato, by way of endorsing a Socratic way of being with oneself (aiming towards unity and consistency)
6. Is thinking the only realm of authentic action (inaction) for Arendt?
7. How can thinking be manifest in society?
Looking forward to the online conversations!
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