Abstract

This study analyzes in depth Hannah Arendt's enduring dialogue with Plato's philosophy and maps its impacts on major arendtian themes like totalitarianism, philosophy, political action and evil. Arendt's understanding and uses of Plato's work have been influenced by various intellectual, contextual and philosophical sources which the book also brings into light, like Heidegger's studies on Plato and the afterwar debates surrounding Plato's reputation as forefather of totalitarianism, which resulted from the ideological appropriations of his political thought in Germany between the 1920s and 1940s.