Three Women in Dark Times: Edith Stein, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil

by Sylvie Courtine-Denamy, G.M. Goshgarian (Translator)

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 grâce. 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."

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Biography, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Anna Heilman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Książka pomaga spojrzeć na procesy, które złożyły się na wybuch drugiej wojny światowej (ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem sytuacji Żydów w czasie jej trwania i w okresie międzywojennym) oczami trzech filozofek. Główną osią budowania narracji są ich losy przedstawione równolegle - książka podzielona jest na trzy części w porządku chronologicznym. Pierwsza - "Lata nauki" pozwala dostrzec idee i postaci, które wywarły na nie wpływ, kolejne (II - "Zaangażowanie w świecie <1933-1939>, III - Wygnanie <1940-1943>) odnoszą się bardziej do ich własnych teorii, przemyśleń oraz działalności naukowej, społecznej i politycznej. Taki układ z jednej strony pomaga zauważyć podobieństwa i różnice w prezentowanych przez nie postawach, z drugiej czasami bywa nieczytelny (wątpliwości dotyczące tego do której z filozofek odnosi się dany akapit). Rozdziały dotyczące okresu 1933-1943 rozpoczynają się kalendarium, co pomaga osadzić konkrente myśli i działania filozofek w kluczowym do ich odczytywania kontekście - jednocześnie może to być pomocne w zgłębianiu historii tego okresu. Co ciekawe, w książce ukazany jest nie tylko stosunek tytłowych trzech kobiet do sytuacji społeczno-politycznej, ale także do własnej kobiecości oraz pochodzenia oraz innych aspektów życia. Lektura dość wymagająca, ale zdecydowanie warta podjęcia tego wysiłku.

[O · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great investigation that gives bigger landscape of certain period from different point of views. Historical, political and philosophical.
However it might be not enough to read only this book and solid background in philosophy and history is required to gain the maximum advantage from this book.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting look at the different thought presented by three Jewish women philosophers during WWII. Their reactions to the dark times in which they lived are interesting in comparison and contrast as shown by the author. They touched on many of the same ideas, but often took very different sides, and always had different perspectives. It's interesting to see the turn towards Catholicism in Stein and Weil and contrast it with Arendt's Zionism.

This is a great introductory look at the three philosophers and without discussing all of their ideas individually, lets the reader look at how much the environment, political and intellectual, of the time affects the thoughts of individual thinkers.

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are 3+ really good short books/long essays about Simone Weil and Hannah Arendt and their relationship with their Jewish heritage, WW2, and philosophy on work, racism/colonialism and humanity. Instead it's a wandering book of 3 women before WW2 and up to 1943 looking at their writings and religion and what was happening in the year of the chapter, which was sometimes longer than the segments on the purported subjects. I just want to take a copy and cut it up to create a clearer argument/narrative.

[Ian Clary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a helpful comparison and contrast between three Jewish women philosophers and their respective struggles against Nazism in Germany and France. While I read the book mainly for Edith Stein, I was also helped in my understanding of Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil, which was cursory at best. Though the three shared much in terms of being women, philosophers, and Jewish, they each responded to anti-Semitism and Nazism differently. Both Stein and Weil converted to Christianity, though Stein's faith was much more serious and orthodox, Weil's was tied deeply to her curious personality as a kind of mystic who seems to have had a touch of neuroticism--for instance, she was Jewish but hated Judaism and the Old Testament. She also did not undergo baptism. For the most part, her beliefs are orthodox, but often expressed in a radical way. Though Arendt never became a Christian, her Jewishness was wrapped up more with her ethnicity than it was religious belief -- politically, it expressed itself in Arendt's Zionism.
The book is grounded in serious research and contains a lot of helpful information. I also appreciated how the author related the three women to each other, respecting their unique personalities in light of their shared experiences. I did find the book to be labourious at points. It was uneven in its treatment of the three -- Stein by far received the least amount of attention. It also assumed a lot of knowledge on the part of the reader. I have a decent grounding in the events, thought, and people of this time period, but the author required the reader to have a fairly in-depth understanding of French politics beyond what I already had. The author also provided timelines at the beginning of most of the chapters that were filled with superfluous detail that often did not relate to anything in the given chapter or the book itself.
I would recommend 'Three Women in Dark Times' as a help to understanding this unfortunate period in world history and the three women who were the focus of the study. But having a decent knowledge of early- to mid-twentieth-century European history will help facilitate that understanding.

[Anna Yukhymets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Трохи клаптикова механіка тексту, тому я час від часу губилися і не розуміла, про що йшла мова. І сама логіка переплетіння трьох історій-жінок-трансформованих-в-ідейні-ланцюжки (взаємозалежні? взаємопроникні?) не завжди створювала відчуття спільного змісту між ними трьома, а радше видавалося силуваним «стягуванням» (аж доти, поки ці нитки не починають стоншуватися й існувати на межі рвання). Це більше питання до стилю тексту, який не до кінця справлявся з власною амбітністю, що його в принципі урухомила.

Що цінно, так це те, що переплетеність у такому підході до інтелектуальної історії (що заходить на поле політичної, на мою думку) створило мені точку входу у 20-те століття, Голокост і Другу світову, яка куди обʼємніша, ніж деякі інші способи розповідати ці історії.

[Cris · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is telling, that all three women had a poor opinion of Heidegger as a chauvinist and philosopher, even Arendt who was his lover. It was interesting that among the three, celibate Stein seems to eventually have landed on a more balanced position about her sex, neither using it like Arendt nor despising it like Weil. Wish the book had attempted to analyze how their Judaism or entire rejection of it (Weil) would play out in their philosophy and activism. The question pricks me, why did Weil mistrust her mystical experiences?

[Wenjing · Rating 4 out of 5]

能感受出作者爱女，不仅写了三位女哲学家，在背景描述的时候也写了许多女性学者。其实更想看罗莎卢森堡和汉娜阿伦特对照着写。

[Frank Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a good one; you can compare how the same author writes about these three women