Comprehension requires bearing the burden of reality rather than reducing it to precedent

Evidence

The conviction that everything that happens on earth must be comprehensible to man can lead to interpreting history by commonplaces. Comprehension does not mean denying the outrageous, deducing the unprecedented from precedents, or explaining phenomena by such analogies and generalities that the impact of reality and the shock of experience are no longer felt. It means, rather, examining and bearing consciously the burden which our century has placed on us—neither denying its existence nor submitting meekly to its weight. Comprehension, in short, means the unpremeditated, attentive facing up to, and resisting of, reality—whatever it may be. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 9

Categorization

• DEFINE: Arendt’s working definition of ‘comprehension’ as an intellectual stance distinct from explanation-by-analogy or denial — a foundational tool for the whole field.
• XREF: Connects to the Islamophobia-field scaffolding goal: this is the methodological stance for reading totalitarian-era antisemitism, which later readings will inherit.