Hello, I’m Yang Zhao. Let me begin with a reminder: do not care too much about titles, and especially do not trust them too readily. Look up Hannah Arendt, particularly in Chinese sources that love labels, and you will find her called a philosopher. That label may cause you to overlook The Origins of Totalitarianism.

From every angle, this is not a work of philosophy but a genuine historical study and major historiographical achievement. Arendt had her own system of thought, yet this book appears historical and is hard to place from philosophy alone. It would be unfortunate to miss it for that reason.

In Responsibility and Judgment, Arendt stresses that responsibility is profoundly difficult. The central point came from her own experience: when everyone behaves alike and institutions demand that behavior, how responsible is a person for what they do? There is no simple answer.

When discussing how thought forms, I often quote Wang Yangming. Ideas such as “extending innate knowledge” were, for him, won through a hundred deaths and a thousand hardships. He lamented that listeners and disciples, ignorant of their origins, reduced them to slogans and missed their importance.

Why did Arendt explore responsibility this way? We have common assumptions about it, and may wonder why philosophers must reinterpret a familiar concept in a manner so unlike ordinary understanding.

Her inquiry did not arise abstractly. It came from handling history: how did the Holocaust occur, and how could such immense tragedy be caused? Seeking its causal origins shaped her mode of thought.

Arendt placed the Holocaust within the broader historical phenomenon of totalitarianism’s origins. Without investigating her relation to Jewish history and the Jewish question, one cannot understand her concept of responsibility. Her discussion cannot be approached as self-contained philosophical analysis.

Much of her later philosophy is supported by a view of history built in this historiographical classic. The Origins of Totalitarianism is therefore a foundation for understanding Arendt’s thought and philosophy.