This is a Living the Core seminar with Dr. Charles McNamara (Columbia).

Much has been written recently about Arendt's political observation that totalitarian masses would "believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true," but her views on space exploration and astronomy have attracted less attention, even if she ranks "the invention of the telescope" alongside the Protestant Reformation among the decisive events of the modern era. As entrepreneurs and nations alike race toward the Moon, Mars, and beyond, what moral and political questions surrounding space exploration might emerge? How does Arendt's unease with our "conquest of space" invite us to reconsider the achievements of Galileo, Descartes, and other early scientific thinkers?