Hanna Arendt An approach to the political philosophy of the twentieth century
Hanna Arendt was born in Linden-Limmer, today suburb of Hanover, Germany on October 14, 1906 and died in New York , USA, December 4, 1975. It was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, particularly for his studies in the field of political theory. Disenfranchisement and persecution of ethnic German Jew expelled from his country in 1937. Then in 1951, Hanna took U.S. nationality, country of residence. He was a disciple of Heidegger, Husserl and Jaspers. He was also professor at the Universities of Berkeley, Princeton, Columbia and Chicago.
Fundamental Works
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) Rahel
Vaernhagen: the life of a Jewess (1958)
The Human Condition (1958)
Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963) Men
in times of darkness (1968)
Between Past and Future: eight exercises in political thought (1968)
Reflections on Violence (1969)
Crisis of the Republic (1972)
The life of the spirit (1978)
The author of "Ideas
the political thought of Hannah Arendt: its current impact, "main article to be discussed in this work, defined as an" archaeologist of political thought ", according to their development of ideas through the analysis of new veins. Here is a list of the main issues addressed by our thinker and reviewed by Francisco Avila Fuenmayor.
• The totalitarianism
The power
• Violence • The domination
• The policy
• The history
The freedom
Towards a historical understanding of totalitarianism
"We can not take the fight against totalitarianism until we have understood, since they do not understand (...) until we have defeated"
to Arendt What is understanding? In principle a difference between understanding and knowledge while pointing to a conditional sequence between the two concepts. So understanding rests on knowledge, with the initial understanding that there is a necessary condition for knowledge. Hanna part of that vision for your understanding and critique of totalitarianism. It involves studying the recent history and political development, focusing on the denial of freedom, which says, has been endangered several times, but never in such an extreme and radical acquired under totalitarian regimes. Arendt
also proposed the existence of an interesting analogy between the terms totalitarianism and imperialism in the sense that they are looking for an aggressive foreign policy. The historical justification for this postulate recalled that the former replaced the latter in their respective developments as global hegemonic political phenomena. Both concepts are so installed on the political paradigm of the twentieth century that have been used, perhaps anachronistically, to name wrongs of the past characterized by aggressiveness and the desire for expansionism (imperialism) or terror and unbridled thirst for power (totalitarianism). Hanna warns
characteristics of totalitarianism: alienation, nuclear blackmail, injustice, the consensus tax, irrational use of technology to the detriment of environmental equilibrium and of course the imposition of the rules by the developed countries to their developing subordinates. [1] domain structures are the result of a historical process [2] . In other words, fascism does not break on the scene without the prior existence of certain elements. In the final scene of The Serpent's Egg (1977), the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, one character points out to us that Nazism was already the germ of German society, just as the serpent in its egg and accurately shows which will hold as adults. Finally
Arendt warns that democratic society is not immune or immune to totalitarianism, because although he enjoys bad press did not leak hidden costs in new ways. As an example worth the control of world powers demonstrated through technological resources, which is tinged with totalitarianism is totalitarianism would always be dormant or potential, ready to make its appearance in the power structure shifts.
Reflections on power, violence and domination
"The policy challenge is always the violence can never", the phrase belongs to Esquirol, who studies Arendt's position on these concepts. Hanna violence is something uniquely human. It can only exist in the order man-man, and that the same action under the human-animal structure, more correctly defined as cruelty. With regard to the relationship between man and nature Arendt argues that the ecological crisis is a product of violence against nature. As a counterpart of violence find peace, love, and discourse. There is a special emphasis placed on this word because a tight definition of the concept of violence in Arendt would define the latter as "the opposite of speech." The political history offers many examples of use and abuse of violence which has been present in revolutions, paradigm shifts, etc.. That is, has been a practice in the exercise of power in state societies [3] , despite the development of violence in extraestatales areas: terrorism, organized crime, informal crime, etc.
Arendt believes that the violence has been the common denominator of the twentieth century history. "Nobody set out to think about history or politics can remain unaware of the enormous role violence has always played in human affairs and has been singled out so few times for their special consideration. " There is a nod in this critical Marxist-Hegelian philosophy, for whom violence is a necessary ingredient for social change, thereby positing its historical justification. Hanna is opposed to this view arguing that gun violence is more reform than revolution. In his book The Human Condition An analysis of the historical development of violence from antiquity to modern times, while in Crisis of the Republic warns about the use of violence and that this "is distinguished by its instrumental" . Moreover
political thought Arendt aims to design and analysis of non-violence to reflecting on something "political" man [4] , in its plurality, she essentially defined as "not violent", which can be the key to end the violence. By the way questions the efficacy of violence and force in the exercise of power.
precisely with respect to the concept of power Arendt agrees with Hobbes in form but not the content. Recall that the Leviathan is mentioned the war as a condition for forming and consistency of power. Hanna on the other hand, war is a form of violence that occurs outside of power. In his conception the term usually refers to the ability to produce certain results. But spinning finer, ie, speaking specifically of social or political power are hinting at the possibility of women and men to act in public, and exercise the power of man over man, that is, we're talking about domination . [5]
For Arendt power is what keeps the existence of the public sphere, the space in which men are grouped by speech and action: "The power comes from the men when they act together and disappears when they disperse. " With regard to the latter, it is interesting to note that our thinker extended away from a tradition of political philosophy, which has always presented itself to power and violence as inextricably linked concepts. Arendt noted has addressed this lack of theory that involves the use of the words: power, power, strength, authority (of course tinged with a good touch of violence) as if they were synonymous when in fact refer to distinct phenomena. This impasse has prevented linguistic-philosophical understanding of those concepts in greater depth. For Arendt the term to be defined as "concerted human action" and the loss of power "becomes a temptation for replace the power with violence. "
Another noteworthy idea in Hanna Arendt's your concept of freedom. He claims that is inherent in human beings and is the reason why this politically organized lives with his fellows. The reason of history for its part, would be the recognition of this freedom in past actions in order to preserve it as the cause of liberty becomes the existence of the policy. ________________________
[1] worth mentioning that the development of this segment has used the concepts of "center" and "periphery" complementary opposites within the concept of "economy World ", coined by Immanuel Wallerstein about Atlantic expansion and the origins of European imperialism in the strict sense in the XV and XVI.
[2] The movement of companies has its own dynamics, which is as Pierre Vilar matter of history "
[3] For Max Weber State when it is possible there the "legitimate monopoly of coercion." Hanna Arendt will oppose this assumption when the vacuum theoretical question that she clearly seen in the understanding of the concepts of power and violence.
[4] In this issue there is an obvious influence of "political animal" of Aristotle.
[5] "It is said that the state is the instrument that allows the ruling class to exercise their violent domination of the dominated classes. And that has been, is necessary before making them antagonistic social classes, linked by the establishment. "(Pierre Clastres). Another interesting remark on this subject we find in Maurice Godelier. According to his scheme, all power of domination is comprised of two inextricably linked elements: violence and consent, of which the most decisive force is the violence we of the rulers, but the consent of the ruled. In this view an oppressed majority would consent to that "this rule is presented as a service or as tied to a service provided by the rulers."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FUENMAYOR AVILA, Francisco J. "Some ideas of Hanna Arendt's political thought: its impact today," Revista de Ciencias Sociales, year XI, vol. 1, University of Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela, 2005, pp. 181-191
Clastres, Pierre, "Society against the State": La Societe contre l'Etat , Paris, Les edicions de minuit, 1971, (chapter 11), Rosario Herrera Translation
FISTETTI Guido, Francesco. Community. political lexicon, Heber Translation Cardoso, Buenos Aires, Nueva Visión, 2004
Godelier, Maurice. "Origins and Training. Formation processes, diversity and the foundations of the state ", in: International Journal of Social Sciences. Paris, UNESCO, 1980, pp. 179-186
VILAR, Pierre. Started
vocabulary historical analysis. Barcelona. 4 th edition. Criticism, 1982. (1 st ed. Paris, 1980)
Wallerstein, Immanuel.
The modern global system. Capitalist agriculture and the origins of the European World-Economy in the sixteenth century, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1974
Wolin, Sheldon.
policy and perspective. Continuity and change in Western thought . Buenos Aires, Amorrortu, 2001
FILM CITED
SHEET
Title: The Serpent's Egg
Original title: The serpent's egg
Address:
Ingmar Bergman Country: West Germany, the United States
Year: 1977
Release Date: 28/10/1977
Length: 119 min.
Genre: Historical Drama
Rating: Not Recommended para menores de 18 años
Reparto:
David Carradine ,
Liv Ullmann , Heinz Bennent, Isolde Barth, Toni Berger, Christian Berkel, Richard Bohne, Paula Braend, Erna Brünell, Paul Burian
Productora: De Laurentiis, Rialto Film
Pablo Ojeda y Natalia Ruiz
Cátedra: Introducción a la Filosofía
Profesora: Lic. Liliana Ponce
Instituto Superior del Profesorado
Dr. Joaquín V. González
Artículo complementario de la exposición oral:
Hanna Arendt: Una aproximación a la Filosofía Política del siglo XX.
November 11, 2010
Hanna Arendt,
by Anabella Perazzo, Melina Ramirez and Denise Tello
Johanna Arendt, better known as Hannah, was born on 14 October 1906 in Germany. This contemporary political philosophy (but refuses to be classified as political philosophy, you want all your publications to be called political theories) of Jewish descent, live in a historical context marked by the advancement of socialism in the Soviet Union, the creation of the Israeli state, and German fascism course that would lead in 1933 to leave their country and emigrate to the United States (which we grant citizenship only in 1951). Once installed, safe from persecution, including work as a journalist and college teacher.
His political theories are influenced by the modern ideal of European intellectuals like Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl, and added to his own vision of politics, have to defend the concept of pluralism. Thanks to this concept would create the potential for freedom and political equality among men. In addition Arendt is situated in a critically against representative democracy, bowing to a system of advice or forms of direct democracy.
Among other things, criticizes Arendt icons of classical philosophy as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Montesquieu, and thanks to its independent thinking, his theory of totalitarianism and its work on existential philosophy, made this author, one of the most influential of the twentieth century.
Man and Politics by Hannah Arendt
Arendt argues that both men and politics are shaped by the active life and spiritual life.
active life contains 3 concepts, which are: work (which is everything that makes a man for survival and satisfaction of needs basic) labor (which is the creator of the human world and is the one who creates the habitat of politics) and finally the action (which is the policy in both men relate to other men, ie in terms of plurality .)
The spiritual life has the thought (which is the creator of meanings, is what determines the understanding that it is free and open), the will (which is what allows us to discover, free content, human and switches) and finally, the trial (which is the valuation of particular and concrete, is spontaneous and can only exist in society)
Both the spiritual life as an active life up action policy, since it belongs to the active life, but its origin is in the spiritual life, which is the basis of our present human.
We understand now that what is built between the men as they relate politically, is a world that is essential for the survival of the human.
For Arendt the world is building up objectives with the other, creating agreements and imagining a different perspective to ours. In this world man intervenes, as operator of the same nature as alien and freedom, which is something that can differentiate yourself, and that to pursue the policy must be a spectator, be a thinker.
In this sense we can say, according to Arendt, that political action is when begets power, this is a construction of the world and establishing only the men as a whole by the agreement between them. On the contrary, violence for its destructive power can not build anything. Within
political action can talk about revolution, which must go in search of a lifestyle free, creative and participatory for all. The revolution can only occur with the participation of men building a passive power. In this sense, Arendt argues that politics alone is true when people are organized to think and build a world of their own to inhabit with creativity and freedom, as to engage in politics is necessary to be free, thus all free and creative activity plays in the public man, without the need for further legitimacy, however small breeds power, built a world and is not easily susceptible to collapse .
So for Arendt the new configuration of the natural sciences on policy imparts giving new meaning to the action of man upon the world as the creator of it and understanding that gives the meanings to it, dare the trigger. Establishing the concept of freedom, which is the basis for changing the political action. It is when the man thinks collectively and bring new changes from the new vision envelope.
The political actor is faced by their peers and exercises creative freedom in the world established.
This presentation was made by Mayra Alvarez, Pablo and Manuel Diaz Mezzadra
