Hannah Arendt on thinking and action: A bridge to the spiritual side of social work

Abstract

Social workers are being challenged to incorporate a spiritual perspective into their frames of practice. In the tradition of borrowing from other disciplines, the philosophy of Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), a modern political thinker, has much to offer our profession in this regard. The spiritual resides in an invisible realm. Hannah Arendt, in her writings, describes a part of this invisible world, the world of thinking. She ties this invisible realm to moral consideration and to action. She does not describe her ideas as spiritual, yet the elements that comprise this universal aspect of being human are implicit in her work. Her particular contribution to how we think and act is a natural and timely link to developing a spiritually sensitive social work practice grounded in the values and ethics of our profession.

Keywords:

• Thinking
• action
• spirituality
• morality
• meaning