ABSTRACT
Because Arendt argued that stories are where life and thought become one, we need to explore her notion of thinking. This chapter argues that, for Arendt, thinking involved continuous conversations with our conscience. Living truthfully is to live in harmony with this travel partner. Arendt believed that thinking could cultivate conscience and create the strength by which humans could protect themselves against habituation. Her beliefs were grounded in the belief that thinking is naturally associated with finding a good and beautiful life. From the criticism of her work on the banality of evil in her analysis of the Eichmann case, the relations between thinking and thoughtlessness are discussed. While life involves hope and trust in the goodness of people, we need to continuously create spaces for the legitimacy of thinking and for political multiplication and to look for ways to reduce the impact of evil among us. Plurality, multiplicity, and the beginning of life itself are seen as the foundations of ethics. Thinking is an intense attunement to life, which involves expanding the senses and opening oneself to the world’s multiple appearances.
