Three women, all philosophers, all of Jewish descent, provide a human face for a decade of crisis in this powerful and moving book. The dark years when the Nazis rose to power are here seen through the lives of Edith Stein, a disciple of Husserl and author of La science et la croix, who died in Auschwitz in 1942; Hannah Arendt, pupil of Heidegger and Jaspers and author of Eichmann in Jerusalem, who unhesitatingly responded to Hitler by making a personal commitment to Zionism; and Simone Weil, a student of Alain and author of La pesanteur et la grace.Following her subjects from 1933 to 1943, Sylvie Courtine-Denamy recounts how these three great philosophers of the twentieth century endeavored with profound moral commitment to address the issues confronting them. Condemned to exile, they not only sought to understand a horrible reality, but also attempted to make peace with it. To do so, Edith Stein and Simone Weil encouraged a stoic acceptance of necessity while Hannah Arendt argued for the capacity for renewal and the need to fight against the banality of evil.Courtine-Denamy also describes how as a student each woman caught the eye of her famous male teacher, yet dared to criticize and go beyond him. She explores each one's sense of her femininity, her position on the "woman question," and her relation to her Jewishness. "All three," the author writes, "are compelling figures who move us with their fierce desire to understand a world out of joint, reconcile it with itself, and, despite everything, love it."

About the Author

Sylvie Courtine-Denamy is a French philosopher and author of Hannah Arendt. G. M. Goshgarian is the translator of several books from Cornell, including The Jew and the Other and The Aesthetic Relation.

Reviews

A fascinating and powerful account... I recommend Courtine-Denamy's book highly. It inspires one to delve more deeply into the study of these three women and their 'dark times.'.

-- Michael J. Kerlin, La Salle University * Theological Studies *

The darkness of the decade 1933-1943 was at least partially illumined by the energetic syntheses of thought and action that Courtine-Denamy skillfully examines in the three remarkable women of this book's subtitle. What animates the comparison are stark differences overlaid on basic similarities.... Highly readable.

* Publishers Weekly *

This dense and important book is an absorbing presentation of the lives and thinking of Edith Stein, Hannah Arendt, and Simone Weil, three brilliant 20th-century philosophers who remain influential today... Her book should be a springboard for those who wish to continue to read and carry on the work of the brave, clear-sighted women she has helped her readers understand.

-- Sally Cunneen * National Catholic Reporter *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801435720
Author Sylvie Courtine-Denamy
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 27mm