Trust, Hope, and Love for the World: Reflections on Arendt's The Human Condition

2024/03/28

"I'd like to turn that master's thesis into a book"—it all started with my supervisor's quiet mutter.

This book aims to interpret Hannah Arendt's major work, The Human Condition, with the concept of "the world" as its central axis. The themes are "birth" and "death," as well as "natality" and "immortality." The book was completed by revising and expanding upon my master's thesis. What was the message Arendt tried to convey to us through The Human Condition? This was the question I had been pondering all along.

When I was writing my master's thesis, I never imagined it would become a book. However, from the moment my supervisor introduced me to an editor, things began to move. If I told myself from a year ago, I probably wouldn't believe it.

What I prioritized in creating this book was writing text that serves as a declaration of "this is how I, as a person, read Arendt"—in other words, making it a piece of Arendt scholarship where my own existence is visible. Certainly, putting "the self" at the forefront might be a taboo in research. Nevertheless, I wanted to make it a book where I could instill, even in a subtle way, something like a testament to my own life up to this point.

I was influenced by the words of Hideo Kobayashi in The Construction of Man: "They write theories, they write knowledge, but scholars who write about how they, as human beings, are navigating life are truly, truly rare." Or the words of Kenzaburo Oe in Literature Notes: "A writer wishes to communicate to others what it means for them to exist within this world."

That is why I was truly happy when I timidly mentioned that the word count had significantly increased as a result of the revisions, and the editor replied, "Don't worry about the word count; for now, please write to your heart's content." It felt as though my style of putting "the self" at the forefront had been affirmed.

I am still encouraged by those words today.

Trust, Hope, and Love for the World: Reflections on Arendt's The Human Condition

Daichi Hayashi

Misuzu Shobo

424 pages, 4,180 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.