Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action

Hannah Arendt's Theory of Political Action
Author: Trevor Tchir
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2017-05-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319534386

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
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1994-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780791417294

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.

Arendt on the Political

Arendt on the Political
Author: David Arndt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2019-10-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108498310

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

Phenomenology of Plurality

Phenomenology of Plurality
Author: Sophie Loidolt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2017-09-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351804022

Winner of the 2018 Edwin Ballard Prize awarded by the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology This book develops a unique phenomenology of plurality by introducing Hannah Arendt’s work into current debates taking place in the phenomenological tradition. Loidolt offers a systematic treatment of plurality that unites the fields of phenomenology, political theory, social ontology, and Arendt studies to offer new perspectives on key concepts such as intersubjectivity, selfhood, personhood, sociality, community, and conceptions of the "we." Phenomenology of Plurality is an in-depth, phenomenological analysis of Arendt that represents a viable third way between the "modernist" and "postmodernist" camps in Arendt scholarship. It also introduces a number of political and ethical insights that can be drawn from a phenomenology of plurality. This book will appeal to scholars interested in the topics of plurality and intersubjectivity within phenomenology, existentialism, political philosophy, ethics, and feminist philosophy.

Thinking in Dark Times

Thinking in Dark Times
Author: Roger Berkowitz
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2010
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0823230759

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.

Hannah Arendt and Political Theory

Hannah Arendt and Political Theory
Author: Steve Buckler
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780748639021

Explores Arendt's understanding of method: of what political theory is, its purposes and limits, and how it is best undertaken. It shows that her unusual approach - which has led some to believe she fails to offer a consistent method - reflects a definite conception of and approach to political theory.

The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt

The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt
Author: Dana Villa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2000-11-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521645713

A distinguished team of contributors examines the primary themes of Arendt's multi-faceted thought.

Hannah Arendt and the Law

Hannah Arendt and the Law
Author: Marco Goldoni
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2012-04-20
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1847319319

This book fills a major gap in the ever-increasing secondary literature on Hannah Arendt's political thought by providing a dedicated and coherent treatment of the many, various and interesting things which Arendt had to say about law. Often obscured by more pressing or more controversial aspects of her work, Arendt nonetheless had interesting insights into Greek and Roman concepts of law, human rights, constitutional design, legislation, sovereignty, international tribunals, judicial review and much more. This book retrieves these aspects of her legal philosophy for the attention of both Arendt scholars and lawyers alike. The book brings together lawyers as well as Arendt scholars drawn from a range of disciplines (philosophy, political science, international relations), who have engaged in an internal debate the dynamism of which is captured in print. Following the editors' introduction, the book is split into four Parts: Part I explores the concept of law in Arendt's thought; Part II explores legal aspects of Arendt's constitutional thought: first locating Arendt in the wider tradition of republican constitutionalism, before turning attention to the role of courts and the role of parliament in her constitutional design. In Part III Arendt's thought on international law is explored from a variety of perspectives, covering international institutions and international criminal law, as well as the theoretical foundations of international law. Part IV debates the foundations, content and meaning of Arendt's famous and influential claim that the 'right to have rights' is the one true human right.

Hannah Arendt’s Ethics

Hannah Arendt’s Ethics
Author: Deirdre Lauren Mahony
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2018-06-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350034185

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.

Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem

Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem
Author: Steven E. Aschheim
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2001-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780520220577

"It is impressive to see an edited collection in which such a high intellectual standard is maintained throughout... I learned things from almost every one of these chapters."—Craig Calhoun, author of Critical Social Theory