that her "career", which had, doubtless, been assured in advance in Germany, would be jeopardized until she managed to win recognition in her adopted landIf the author means by "career" that of a philosopher in Germany, does she mean the graduate of 1929 to whom Japsers would not accord full honours - when (according to Alasdair MacIntyre's research) Edith Stein had no hope of a position in 1919? What had changed in that decade? Where were these openings in the German university system for women as philosophers who were born Jews? Or is this veiled irony? I don't think so - it is merely naive when considering the author of a book on Rahel.
Arendt was ranked first out of the "Top Ten" by Camille Paglia (always able to get a reaction.)
Here was my irrate response (minus typos and omissions):
How could Ayn Rand have displaced someone of the stature of Susanne Langer? Are we seriously to believe that Arendt is a more significant philosopher than Philippa Foot? Than Iris Murdoch? Does Rand out-rank Edith Stein? In what possible sense? Could Rand out-rank Simone Weil?Of course Paglia was just trying to irritate with not mentioning Sontag in the top ten ... or my least favourite, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.
This was 2005 - no Judith Butler, no Judith Jarvis Thomson.
What remains sobering is to see the list of "chairs" and past notables at Collège de France - but then do the French really think of Madame Curie as Maria Skłodowska, a Pole born in Warsaw at a time when it was under the Russian empire?
Arendt was born in Königsberg - ask any man in the street what piece of Russia lies south-west along the Baltic from Lithuania ... it's like asking where is the Russian autonomous Jewish republic, or Еврейская автономная область - the Hebrew Autonomous Region - with its reported 1.2% ethnic Jews - might be. If the French have forgotten Danzig, we would do well to forget the city of Kant.
Arendt: her master philosopher was her fate (and it is that which will place a seal on her reputation.)
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