Hannah Arendt,

Unit - 2 : Political Thought
Hannah Arendt,
was a German Jewish political thinker. Her many books and articles on topics ranging from The Origins of Totalitarianism to The Life of the Mind have had a lasting influence on political theory and philosophy. Arendt is widely considered one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century.

She died suddenly of a heart attack in 1975, at the age of 69, leaving her last work, The Life of the Mind, unfinished. Her works cover a broad range of topics, but she is best known for those dealing with the nature of power and evil, as well as politics, direct democracy, authority, and totalitarianism.



Arendt believed that the right to citizenship, the right of a plurality of people "to act together concerning things that are of equal concern to each," is not only denied by totalitarianism, as it is by every despotism, but stands opposed to the principle that guides the acts of destruction that characterize

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) was one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. Born into a German-Jewish family, she was forced to leave Germany in 1933 and lived in Paris for the next eight years, working for a number of Jewish refugee organisations. In 1941 she immigrated to the United States and soon became part of a lively intellectual circle in New York. She held a number of academic positions at various American universities until her death in 1975. She is best known for two works that had a major impact both within and outside the academic community. The first, The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, was a study of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes that generated a wide-ranging debate on the nature and historical antecedents of the totalitarian phenomenon. The second, The Human Condition, published in 1958, was an original philosophical study that investigated the fundamental categories of the vita activa (labor, work, action). In addition to these two important works, Arendt published a number of influential essays on topics such as the nature of revolution, freedom, authority, tradition and the modern age. At the time of her death in 1975, she had completed the first two volumes of her last major philosophical work, The Life of the Mind, which examined the three fundamental faculties of the vita contemplativa (thinking, willing, judging).

Arendt’s Theory of Action

Arendt’s theory of action and her revival of the ancient notion of praxis represent one of the most original contributions to twentieth century political thought. By distinguishing action (praxis) from fabrication (poiesis), by linking it to freedom and plurality, and by showing its connection to speech and remembrance, Arendt is able to articulate a conception of politics in which questions of meaning and identity can be addressed in a fresh and original manner. Moreover, by viewing action as a mode of human togetherness, Arendt is able to develop a conception of participatory democracy which stands in direct contrast to the bureaucratized and elitist forms of politics so characteristic of the modern epoch.

In what follows, we focus on some of the key components of Arendt’s theory of action, such as freedom, plurality and disclosure. We then examine the links between action and narrative, the importance of remembrance, and of what may be called “communities of memory.” We then show the connection between action, power and the space of appearance. Lastly, we look at the remedies for the unpredictability and irreversibility of action, namely, the power of promise and the power to forgive.

Arendt’s Theory of Judgment

One of the most enduring contributions of Arendt’s political thought is to be found in her reflections on judgment which were to occupy the last years of her life. Together with the theory of action, her unfinished theory of judgment represents her central legacy to twentieth century political thought. We now explore some of the key aspects of her theory of judgment, and will examine its place in the architectonic of Arendt’s theory of politics.

Bibliography

Works by Arendt

[LA]	Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin. Berlin: Julius Springer Verlag, 1929. Translation as Love and Saint Augustine, with an interpretive essay by Joanna V. Scott and Judith C. Stark. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
[RV]	Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman. Revised edition translated into English by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. Critical edition edited by Liliane Weissberg. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
[OT]	The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1951. Third edition with new prefaces, 1973.
[HC]	The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.
[EJ]	Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Viking Press, 1963. Revised and enlarged edition, 1965.
[OR]	On Revolution. New York: Viking Press, 1963. Revised second edition, 1965.
[BPF]	Between Past and Future. New York: Viking Press, 1961. Revised edition, 1968.
[MDT]	Men in Dark Times. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968.
[OV]	On Violence. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970.
[CR]	Crises of the Republic. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.
[JP]	The Jew as Pariah. Edited and with an introduction by Ron H. Feldman. New York: Grove Press, 1978.
[JW]	The Jewish Writings. Edited by Jerome Kohn and Ron H. Feldman. New York: Schocken Books, 2007.
[LM]	The Life of the Mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.
[LKPP]	Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy. Edited and with an interpretive essay by Ronald Beiner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
[EU]	Essays in Understanding: 1930–1954. Edited and with an introduction by Jerome Kohn. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.
[RJ]	Responsibility and Judgment. Edited and with an introduction by Jerome Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2003.
[PP]	The Promise of Politics. Edited and with an introduction by Jerome Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2005.
[RPW]	Hannah Arendt: The Recovery of the Public World. Edited by Melvyn A. Hill. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979.
[UP]	“Understanding and Politics.” Partisan Review, vol. 20, no. 4 (July–August 1953): 377–92. Reprinted in Essays in Understanding: 1930–1954.
[PRD]	“Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship.” The Listener, (6 August 1964): 185–205. Reprinted in Responsibility and Judgment.
[TMC]	“Thinking and Moral Considerations: A Lecture.” Social Research, 38(3) (Autumn 1971): 417–46. Reprinted in Social Research, 51(1) (Spring 1984): 7–37, and in Responsibility and Judgment.
[PRPI]	“Public Rights and Private Interests.” In M. Mooney and F. Stuber, eds., Small Comforts for Hard Times: Humanists on Public Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.

Secondary Literature

• Aschheim, S. (ed.), 2001, Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem, Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Baehr, P., 2010, Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Social Sciences, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Baluch, F., 2014, “Arendt’s Machiavellian Moment”, European Journal of Political Theory, 13 (2): 154–177.
• Barnouw, D., 1990, Visible Spaces: Hannah Arendt and the German-Jewish Experience, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Benhabib, S., 1996, The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt, London: Sage Publications.
• –––, 2003, The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt. New Edition with a New Preface and an Appendix, New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
• ––– (ed.), 2010, Politics in Dark Times: Encounters with Hannah Arendt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Berkowitz, R., Keenan, T. and Katz, J. (eds.), 2009, Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics, New York: Fordham University Press.
• Bernauer, J. (ed.), 1987, Amor Mundi: Explorations in the Faith and Thought of Hannah Arendt, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.
• Bernstein, R., 1986, Philosophical Profiles, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• –––, 1996, Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• –––, 2018, Why Read Hannah Arendt Now?, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Birmingham, P., 2006, Hannah Arendt and Human Rights: The Predicament of Common Responsibility, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Bowen-Moore, P., 1989, Hannah Arendt’s Philosophy of Natality, London: Macmillan.
• Bradshaw, L., 1989, Acting and Thinking: The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Calhoun, C. and McGowan, J. (eds.), 1997, Hannah Arendt and the Meaning of Politics, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Canovan, M., 1974, The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt, London: J. M. Dent.
• –––, 1992, Hannah Arendt: A Reinterpretation of Her Political Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dietz, M., 2002, Turning Operations: Feminism, Arendt, and Politics, New York and London: Routledge.
• Disch, L., 1994, Hannah Arendt and the Limits of Philosophy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Dossa, S., 1988, The Public Realm and The Public Self: The Political Theory of Hannah Arendt, Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press.
• Ettinger, E., 1995, Hannah Arendt/Martin Heidegger, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Gottsegen, M., 1993, The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Hansen, P., 1993, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Hill, M. (ed.), 1979, Hannah Arendt: The Recovery of the Public World, New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Hinchman, L. and Hinchman, S. (eds.), 1994, Hannah Arendt: Critical Essays, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Honig, B. (ed.), 1995, Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
• Isaac, J., 1992, Arendt, Camus, and Modern Rebellion, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Kaplan, G. and Kessler, C. (eds.), 1989, Hannah Arendt: Thinking, Judging, Freedom, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
• Kateb. G., 1984, Hannah Arendt: Politics, Conscience, Evil, Oxford: Martin Robertson.
• Kielmansegg, P., Mewes, H. and Glaser-Schmidt, E. (eds.), 1995, Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: German Emigrés and American Political Thought after World War II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kohn, J. and May, L. (eds.), 1996, Hannah Arendt: Twenty Years Later, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Kristeva, J., 2001, Hannah Arendt, New York: Columbia University Press.
• Lederman, S., 2016, “Philosophy, Politics and Participatory Democracy in Hannah Arendt’s Political Thought”, History of Political Thought, 37 (3): 480–508.
• May, D., 1986, Hannah Arendt, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
• McGowan, J., 1998, Hannah Arendt: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Nedelsky, J., and Beiner, R. (eds.), 2001, Judgment, Imagination, and Politics: Themes from Kant and Arendt, New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
• Parekh, B., 1981, Hannah Arendt and the Search for a New Political Philosophy, London: Macmillan.
• Passerin d’Entrèves, M., 1994, The Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt, New York and London: Routledge.
• Pitkin, H., 1998, The Attack of the Blob: Hannah Arendt’s Concept of the Social, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Ring, J., 1997, The Political Consequences of Thinking, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Taminiaux, J., 1997, The Thracian Maid and the Professional Thinker: Arendt and Heidegger, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Villa, D., 1996, Arendt and Heidegger: The Fate of the Political, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• –––, 1999, Politics, Philosophy, Terror: Essays on the Thought of Hannah Arendt, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• ––– (ed.), 2000, The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Watson, D., 1992, Hannah Arendt, London: Fontana Press.
• Whitfield, S., 1980, Into the Dark: Hannah Arendt and Totalitarianism, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Wolin, S., 1977, “Hannah Arendt and the Ordinance of Time,” Social Research, 44(1): 91–105.
• Young-Bruehl, E., 1982, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World, New Haven: Yale University Press. Second edition, 2004.
• –––, 2006, Why Arendt Matters, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.