Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action

Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action

Author: Trevor Tchir

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-05-20

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 3319534386

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This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on action’s disclosure of the unique ‘who’ of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendt’s critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the ‘right to have rights,’ and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the ‘daimon’ metaphor that appears in Arendt’s own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical theory of action and judgment, Arendt performs the fact that many of the legitimating concepts of contemporary secular politics retain a residual vocabulary of transcendence. This book will be of interest not only to Arendt scholars, but also to students of identity politics, the critique of sovereignty, international political theory, political theology, and the philosophy of history.


Book Synopsis Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action by : Trevor Tchir

Download or read book Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action written by Trevor Tchir and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-20 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on action’s disclosure of the unique ‘who’ of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendt’s critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the ‘right to have rights,’ and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the ‘daimon’ metaphor that appears in Arendt’s own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical theory of action and judgment, Arendt performs the fact that many of the legitimating concepts of contemporary secular politics retain a residual vocabulary of transcendence. This book will be of interest not only to Arendt scholars, but also to students of identity politics, the critique of sovereignty, international political theory, political theology, and the philosophy of history.

Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action

Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action

Author: Trevor Tchir

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 2017-05-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783319534374

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This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on action’s disclosure of the unique ‘who’ of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendt’s critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the ‘right to have rights,’ and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the ‘daimon’ metaphor that appears in Arendt’s own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical theory of action and judgment, Arendt performs the fact that many of the legitimating concepts of contemporary secular politics retain a residual vocabulary of transcendence. This book will be of interest not only to Arendt scholars, but also to students of identity politics, the critique of sovereignty, international political theory, political theology, and the philosophy of history.


Book Synopsis Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action by : Trevor Tchir

Download or read book Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action written by Trevor Tchir and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on action’s disclosure of the unique ‘who’ of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendt’s critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the ‘right to have rights,’ and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the ‘daimon’ metaphor that appears in Arendt’s own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical theory of action and judgment, Arendt performs the fact that many of the legitimating concepts of contemporary secular politics retain a residual vocabulary of transcendence. This book will be of interest not only to Arendt scholars, but also to students of identity politics, the critique of sovereignty, international political theory, political theology, and the philosophy of history.

The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt

The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt

Author: Michael G. Gottsegen

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1994-01-01

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780791417294

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It explicates Arendt's major works - The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, On Revolution, The Life of the Mind, and Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy - and explores her contributions to democratic theory and to contemporary postmodern and neo-Kantian political philosophy.


Book Synopsis The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt by : Michael G. Gottsegen

Download or read book The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt written by Michael G. Gottsegen and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It explicates Arendt's major works - The Human Condition, Between Past and Future, On Revolution, The Life of the Mind, and Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy - and explores her contributions to democratic theory and to contemporary postmodern and neo-Kantian political philosophy.

Thinking in Dark Times

Thinking in Dark Times

Author: Roger Berkowitz

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0823230759

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Hannah Arendt is one of the most important political theorists of the 20th century. This book focuses on how, against the professionalized discourses of theory, Arendt insists on the greater political importance of the ordinary activity of thinking.


Book Synopsis Thinking in Dark Times by : Roger Berkowitz

Download or read book Thinking in Dark Times written by Roger Berkowitz and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hannah Arendt is one of the most important political theorists of the 20th century. This book focuses on how, against the professionalized discourses of theory, Arendt insists on the greater political importance of the ordinary activity of thinking.

The Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt

The Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt

Author: Maurizio Passerin d'Entrèves

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-01-04

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1134881967

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First published in 1993. This is a systematic introduction to the thought of one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century. The author uncovers the concepts of modernity, action, judgement and citizenship that underpin her work.


Book Synopsis The Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt by : Maurizio Passerin d'Entrèves

Download or read book The Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt written by Maurizio Passerin d'Entrèves and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-04 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1993. This is a systematic introduction to the thought of one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century. The author uncovers the concepts of modernity, action, judgement and citizenship that underpin her work.

Arendt on the Political

Arendt on the Political

Author: David Arndt

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-10-24

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1108498310

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Shows how Hannah Arendt opened up new ways of thinking about politics and a new approach to interpreting political history.


Book Synopsis Arendt on the Political by : David Arndt

Download or read book Arendt on the Political written by David Arndt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how Hannah Arendt opened up new ways of thinking about politics and a new approach to interpreting political history.

Hannah Arendt’s Ethics

Hannah Arendt’s Ethics

Author: Deirdre Lauren Mahony

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-06-28

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1350034185

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The vast majority of studies of Hannah Arendt's thought are concerned with her as a political theorist. This book offers a contribution to rectifying this imbalance by providing a critical engagement with Arendtian ethics. Arendt asserts that the crimes of the Holocaust revealed a shift in ethics and the need for new responses to a new kind of evil. In this new treatment of her work, Arendt's best-known ethical concepts – the notion of the banality of evil and the link she posits between thoughtlessness and evil, both inspired by her study of Adolf Eichmann – are disassembled and appraised. The concept of the banality of evil captures something tangible about modern evil, yet requires further evaluation in order to assess its implications for understanding contemporary evil, and what it means for traditional, moral philosophical issues such as responsibility, blame and punishment. In addition, this account of Arendt's ethics reveals two strands of her thought not previously considered: her idea that the condition of 'living with oneself' can represent a barrier to evil and her account of the 'nonparticipants' who refused to be complicit in the crimes of the Nazi period and their defining moral features. This exploration draws out the most salient aspects of Hannah Arendt's ethics, provides a critical review of the more philosophically problematic elements, and places Arendt's work in this area in a broader moral philosophy context, examining the issues in moral philosophy which are raised in her work such as the relevance of intention for moral responsibility and of thinking for good moral conduct, and questions of character, integrity and moral incapacity.


Book Synopsis Hannah Arendt’s Ethics by : Deirdre Lauren Mahony

Download or read book Hannah Arendt’s Ethics written by Deirdre Lauren Mahony and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The vast majority of studies of Hannah Arendt's thought are concerned with her as a political theorist. This book offers a contribution to rectifying this imbalance by providing a critical engagement with Arendtian ethics. Arendt asserts that the crimes of the Holocaust revealed a shift in ethics and the need for new responses to a new kind of evil. In this new treatment of her work, Arendt's best-known ethical concepts – the notion of the banality of evil and the link she posits between thoughtlessness and evil, both inspired by her study of Adolf Eichmann – are disassembled and appraised. The concept of the banality of evil captures something tangible about modern evil, yet requires further evaluation in order to assess its implications for understanding contemporary evil, and what it means for traditional, moral philosophical issues such as responsibility, blame and punishment. In addition, this account of Arendt's ethics reveals two strands of her thought not previously considered: her idea that the condition of 'living with oneself' can represent a barrier to evil and her account of the 'nonparticipants' who refused to be complicit in the crimes of the Nazi period and their defining moral features. This exploration draws out the most salient aspects of Hannah Arendt's ethics, provides a critical review of the more philosophically problematic elements, and places Arendt's work in this area in a broader moral philosophy context, examining the issues in moral philosophy which are raised in her work such as the relevance of intention for moral responsibility and of thinking for good moral conduct, and questions of character, integrity and moral incapacity.

Action and Appearance

Action and Appearance

Author: Charles Barbour

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2011-04-21

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1441186808

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Action and Appearance is a collection of essays that look into the crucial and complex link between action and appearance in Hannah Arendt's political thought.Contributed by respected scholars, the essays articulate around the following themes: the emergence of political action when questioning the nature of law, subjectivity and individuality; the relationship between ethics and politics; the nexus of (co-)appearance, thinking and truth; and Arendt's writing as action and appearance. For Arendt, action is a worldly, public phenomenon that requires the presence of others to have any effect. Therefore, to act is more than to decide as it is also to appear. Much has been said about Arendt's theory of action, but little attention has been paid to her approach to appearance as is done in this volume.Action and Appearance explores both Arendt's familiar texts and previously unpublished or recently rediscovered texts to challenge the established readings of her work. Adding to established debates, it will be a unique resource to anyone interested in Hannah Arendt, political thought, political theory, and political philosophy.


Book Synopsis Action and Appearance by : Charles Barbour

Download or read book Action and Appearance written by Charles Barbour and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-04-21 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Action and Appearance is a collection of essays that look into the crucial and complex link between action and appearance in Hannah Arendt's political thought.Contributed by respected scholars, the essays articulate around the following themes: the emergence of political action when questioning the nature of law, subjectivity and individuality; the relationship between ethics and politics; the nexus of (co-)appearance, thinking and truth; and Arendt's writing as action and appearance. For Arendt, action is a worldly, public phenomenon that requires the presence of others to have any effect. Therefore, to act is more than to decide as it is also to appear. Much has been said about Arendt's theory of action, but little attention has been paid to her approach to appearance as is done in this volume.Action and Appearance explores both Arendt's familiar texts and previously unpublished or recently rediscovered texts to challenge the established readings of her work. Adding to established debates, it will be a unique resource to anyone interested in Hannah Arendt, political thought, political theory, and political philosophy.

Arendt and Heidegger

Arendt and Heidegger

Author: Dana Villa

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1995-10-16

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1400821843

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Theodor Adorno once wrote an essay to "defend Bach against his devotees." In this book Dana Villa does the same for Hannah Arendt, whose sweeping reconceptualization of the nature and value of political action, he argues, has been covered over and domesticated by admirers (including critical theorists, communitarians, and participatory democrats) who had hoped to enlist her in their less radical philosophical or political projects. Against the prevailing "Aristotelian" interpretation of her work, Villa explores Arendt's modernity, and indeed her postmodernity, through the Heideggerian and Nietzschean theme of a break with tradition at the closure of metaphysics. Villa's book, however, is much more than a mere correction of misinterpretations of a major thinker's work. Rather, he makes a persuasive case for Arendt as the postmodern or postmetaphysical political theorist, the first political theorist to think through the nature of political action after Nietzsche's exposition of the death of God (i.e., the collapse of objective correlates to our ideals, ends, and purposes). After giving an account of Arendt's theory of action and Heidegger's influence on it, Villa shows how Arendt did justice to the Heideggerian and Nietzschean criticism of the metaphysical tradition while avoiding the political conclusions they drew from their critiques. The result is a wide-ranging discussion not only of Arendt and Heidegger, but of Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Habermas, and the entire question of politics after metaphysics.


Book Synopsis Arendt and Heidegger by : Dana Villa

Download or read book Arendt and Heidegger written by Dana Villa and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1995-10-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theodor Adorno once wrote an essay to "defend Bach against his devotees." In this book Dana Villa does the same for Hannah Arendt, whose sweeping reconceptualization of the nature and value of political action, he argues, has been covered over and domesticated by admirers (including critical theorists, communitarians, and participatory democrats) who had hoped to enlist her in their less radical philosophical or political projects. Against the prevailing "Aristotelian" interpretation of her work, Villa explores Arendt's modernity, and indeed her postmodernity, through the Heideggerian and Nietzschean theme of a break with tradition at the closure of metaphysics. Villa's book, however, is much more than a mere correction of misinterpretations of a major thinker's work. Rather, he makes a persuasive case for Arendt as the postmodern or postmetaphysical political theorist, the first political theorist to think through the nature of political action after Nietzsche's exposition of the death of God (i.e., the collapse of objective correlates to our ideals, ends, and purposes). After giving an account of Arendt's theory of action and Heidegger's influence on it, Villa shows how Arendt did justice to the Heideggerian and Nietzschean criticism of the metaphysical tradition while avoiding the political conclusions they drew from their critiques. The result is a wide-ranging discussion not only of Arendt and Heidegger, but of Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Habermas, and the entire question of politics after metaphysics.

The Public Realm and the Public Self

The Public Realm and the Public Self

Author: Shiraz Dossa

Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 088920831X

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From the time she set the intellectual world on fire with her reflections on Eichmann (1963), Hannah Arendt has been seen, essentially, as a literary commentator who had interesting things to say about political and cultural matters. In this critical study, Shiraz Dossa argues that Arendt is a political theorist in the sense in which Aristotle is a theorist, and that the key to her political theory lies in the twin notions of the “public realm” and the “public self”. In this work, the author explains how Arendt’s unconventional and controversial views make sense on the terrain of her political theory. He shows that her judgement on thinkers, actors, and events as diverse as Plato, Marx, Machiavelli, Freud, Conrad, Hobbes, Hitler, the Holocaust, the French Revolution, and European colonialism flow directly from her political theory. Tracing the origins of this theory to Homer and Periclean Athens, Dossa underlines Arendt’s unique contribution to reinventing the idea and the ideal of citizenship, reminding us that the public realm is the locus of friendship, community, identity, and in a certain sense, humanity. Arendt believes that no one who prefets his or her private interest to public affairs in the old sense can claim to be fully human or truly excellent.


Book Synopsis The Public Realm and the Public Self by : Shiraz Dossa

Download or read book The Public Realm and the Public Self written by Shiraz Dossa and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the time she set the intellectual world on fire with her reflections on Eichmann (1963), Hannah Arendt has been seen, essentially, as a literary commentator who had interesting things to say about political and cultural matters. In this critical study, Shiraz Dossa argues that Arendt is a political theorist in the sense in which Aristotle is a theorist, and that the key to her political theory lies in the twin notions of the “public realm” and the “public self”. In this work, the author explains how Arendt’s unconventional and controversial views make sense on the terrain of her political theory. He shows that her judgement on thinkers, actors, and events as diverse as Plato, Marx, Machiavelli, Freud, Conrad, Hobbes, Hitler, the Holocaust, the French Revolution, and European colonialism flow directly from her political theory. Tracing the origins of this theory to Homer and Periclean Athens, Dossa underlines Arendt’s unique contribution to reinventing the idea and the ideal of citizenship, reminding us that the public realm is the locus of friendship, community, identity, and in a certain sense, humanity. Arendt believes that no one who prefets his or her private interest to public affairs in the old sense can claim to be fully human or truly excellent.