Desiring and Thinking for Politics: Re-reading Hannah Arendt for the Present

What does it mean, today, to reclaim Arendt and her thought not as a monument, but as a challenge?

It has been half a century since the death of Hannah Arendt, and yet her legacy resists final judgement. Her unique position—neither strictly a philosopher nor wholly a political theorist—occupies a liminal space between disciplines, shaping a language capable of confronting the contradictions and upheavals of the 20th century. Her writing, more provocative than consoling, has been both celebrated and contested. The most meaningful way to remember her may lie not in mere celebration or critique, but in the ongoing labour of thinking—openly and carefully.

As such, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Hannah Arendt’s passing, Goethe-Institut Indonesia with various partners will organize a series of lectures and discussions throughout 2025 with scholars, art workers, and activists who engage critically with her legacy across disciplines. 
 
The program will commence with a keynote (online) lecture in which we will foray into reconsidering Hannah Arendt’s basic principles and how her philosophical and political view came into light, entitled Desiring and Thinking for Politics: Re-reading Hannah Arendt for the Present. In the program, there will be two key lectures delivered by prominent academics and philosophers, namely Dr. Mark Aloysius, SJ and Dr. LG. Saraswati Putri, moderated by Retno Daru Dewi GSP.

Dr. Mark Aloysius, SJ, revisits Hannah Arendt’s intellectual journey in her most influential works, The Human Condition (1958) and The Life of the Mind (1977) through the thought of Saint Augustine. Arendt engaged with Augustine’s ideas on desire and thinking; however, her exclusion of a deeper religious understanding leads, according to Aloysius, to a philosophical impasse. One possible way to address this is by reintroducing mystagogy—a spiritual and initiatory dimension—into the discussion. For Aloysius, Arendt’s “Augustinian odyssey” not only equips her with a language and imagery to critique modern political life but also opens the possibility of imagining its renewal.

Similarly, Dr. LG Saraswati Putri offers a parallel reading of Arendt’s diagnosis of contemporary political life, presenting a more grounded and local perspective by reflecting on the current situation in Indonesia starting from Reformation 1998—leaping beyond anthropocentric frameworks. She argues that Arendt’s thought and writing challenge us to reconsider the idea of the common world, one shaped by repression, disinformation, and ecological crisis, and to ask how, as citizens, we might call for change through the practice of political responsibility.