Abstract

Arendt speaks of responsibility throughout her work in important contexts. Surprisingly, there exists no thorough study on responsibility in Arendt's writings to date. This analysis attempts to take the concept of responsibility in her books and papers from 1945 to 1970 philologically-historically into account. Against the backdrop of these reflections one can assume the philosophical relevance of the term ›responsibility‹ for Arendt's thinking about guilt, forgiveness, politics, morality, totalitarianism, education, profession, and role of the intellectual. However, the philosophical dimension of responsibility in Arendt's work can only be sketched in the following and needs to be articulated in another paper.