ABSTRACT
The substance and method of Arendtian scholarship constitutes a curriculum of second thoughts. The idea of second thoughts conjures images of revisiting taken-for-granted assumptions and disentangling oneself from memories that have become confused with "reality" so that they can be reconsidered and argued about. The thought object is different from the image, and the image is different from the sense-object being represented in thought. The author explains the monastic tradition of early Medieval Ireland—in the hope that it may "open up to us with unexpected freshness and tell us things no one has yet had ears to hear" about study, thought and judgment. By having an openness to non-Christian customs and the courage of invention, monastic study during the Celtic Christian period loosened the hold of tradition. The injunction is not to master our hesitations about the past in the present but to embrace their restive quality, remembering that it is never too late for second thoughts.
