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Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy pp 1–6Cite as

Arendt, Hannah

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Introduction

Hannah Arendt (Germany 1906 – United States 1975) is one of the most important political thinkers of the twentieth century and is mostly known for her writings on political action, evil, and totalitarianism. She studied philosophy in Marburg and Heidelberg, Germany, with such renowned German philosophers as Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers (Young-Bruehl 1982, 44, 48). Arendt’s political awakening took place when the Nazis ascended to power in Germany, and she joined the resistance movement. In 1937, she fled the Nazi regime first to France and then to the United States, where she lived the rest of her life and produced the majority of her intellectual work (Arendt 2000, 6–7; Young-Bruehl 1982, 92, 113).

Arendt never systematically developed a theory of law. However, nearly all her works deal with some aspect of law, and in recent years scholars across academic disciplines have brought to light the insights and importance of Arendt’s legal thought (for instance Goldoni and...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Hanna Lukkari

  2. Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Martina Reuter

Authors
  1. Hanna Lukkari
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  2. Martina Reuter
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hanna Lukkari or Martina Reuter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Salzburg, Austria, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Law, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Gianfrancesco Zanetti

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Lukkari, H., Reuter, M. (2020). Arendt, Hannah. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_410-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_410-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6730-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6730-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Law and CriminologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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