Abstract

This article explores and compares Arendt's and Aquinas' views on Thinking and Willing, starting with Arendt's puzzled attention to the Aquinate, in her last work The Life of the Mind. It argues that, contrary to appearances, Arendt's rejection of the 'Two World Theory' does not affect her dealings with the Aquinate, and that she is aware that Aquinas does not defend a version of this theory. However, her criticism touches on the relationship between thinking and willing; issues at the heart of her own inquiry. Arendt's Aquinas represents not only the banality, but also the innocence, of evil as she sees it, but her seeing, that sees this 'thoughtlessness' in Aquinas, is a seeing that can see no good in the world, in contrast with Aquinas', who can. In the attempt to excavate the hidden dialogue between the two authors, the paradox of their complementarity is revealed