ABSTRACT
Hannah Arendt (1906-75), the woman, the Jew, and the thinker, was one of the most challenging figures of the twentieth century. Thanks to her broad knowledge of philosophy and theology, as well as her acute insight into the nature of totalitarianism, she gained respect and recognition from the academic and political milieus. There have been many and multifaceted interpretations of her work, and, until this very day, new research continues to follow up on many different aspects of her philosophy. However, the relation of Arendt’s thought to that of Kierkegaard has rarely been explored. Our purpose is to evaluate this relation in five steps, which correspond to the parts of this article: (1) a brief overview of the life and works of Arendt; (2) an account of Arendt, as reader of Kierkegaard; (3) an account of the use of Kierkegaard by Arendt; (4) an analysis of modernity and doubt, two key terms for Arendt’s understanding of Kierkegaard as the master of suspicion; (5) and finally some concluding remarks about the Arendt-Kierkegaard relation.
