Good and Bad Sentences.

Oops, 8 minutes late.
Anyway…..

My choice for a bad sentence:

“Human distinctness is not the same as otherness….Otherness in its most abstract form is found only in the sheer multiplication of inorganic objects, whereas all organic life already shows variations and distinctions, even between specimens of the same species.” (pg 176)

Otherness as the universal characteristic of being is made clear earlier in the section, so this sentence sort of threw me off. Does otherness just apply to inorganic objects or to everything? After this sentence Arendt again says that man shares otherness with everything that is, so this sentence just seems to go against the working definition provided. That fact ends up resulting in this distinction that I’ve quoted as one which ultimately ends up leaving the reader more confused than they were before.

My choice for a good sentence:

“Thought and cognition are not the same…… Cognition always assumes a definite aim which can be set by practical considerations as well as by “idle curiosity” ; but once this aim has been reached, the cognitive process has come to an end. Thought on the other hand has neither an end nor an aim outside itself; and it does not even produce results."

This is a simple and relatively short explanation of what Arendt’s usage of vocabulary means, although the fact that even here I had to use multiple sentences and take out some of the passage exhibits the run-on and un-concise nature of most of her writing.