Hannah Arendt: Crisis as Modernity’s Choice

Abstract

AccordingArendt, Hannah|( to Hannah Arendt, the twentieth century Western worldWestern civilization was faced with a choice. People could either choose to look for ways to replace the traditions that had fallen in the previous two centuries, which modern scepticism, technology and social change had shown to be defunct. Or, people could see the absence of tradition as an opportunity to “think without bannisters”, and to find a their own ways of establishing values and identities.