THE PARIAH AS REBEL

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THE PARIAH AS REBEL
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• 1. THINKING WITHOUT A BANISTER
• What is Arendts conception of philosophy?
• 2. THE BANALITY OF EVIL
• How does Arendt conceive of totalitarianism?
• 3. THE RIGHT TO HAVE RIGHTS
• Is cosmopolitan law necessary to overcome
  statelessness?

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1. THINKING WITHOUT A BANISTER
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HANNAH ARENDT (1906-1975)

• BIOGRAPHICAL NOTIONS
• 26 October 1906 born in Hannover (Germany).
• 1909 emigration to Königsberg.
• 1913 death of her father.
• 1924-1928 study of philosophy, theology and
  Greek in Marburg, Freiburg and Heidelberg.
• 1929 marriage with Günther Stern (Anders).
• 1933 imprisonment by the Gestapo and escape to
  Paris.
• 1940 marriage with Heinrich Blücher and
  detention in the concentration camp Gurs.
• 1941 immigration to the United States.
• 1941-1944 editor of the journal Aufbau.
• 1953-1956 Professor at Brooklyn College (New
  York).
• 1963-1967 Professor at the University of
  Chicago.
• 1967-1975 Professor at the New School of Social
  Research (New York).
• 4 December 1975 death.

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IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS

• Liebesbegriff bei Augustin (1929).
• Rahel Varnhage Lebensgeschichte einer deutschen
  Jüdin aus der Romantik (1939).
• The Jew as Pariah A Hidden Tradition (1944).
• The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951).
• The Human Condition (1958).
• Eichmann in Jerusalem A Report on the Banality
  of Evil (1963).
• On Revolution (1963).
• On Violence (1970).
• Das Denken (1973).
• Das Wollen (1974).

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ANTI-FOUNDATIONALISM

• Arendt is philosophy is not about epistemology,
  but about politics.
• Since Plato philosophers tried to impose their
  standards of truth upon politics.
• Thinking without a banister (Denken ohne
  Geländer) gt there is not a fixed foundation upon
  which to base thinking.
• A critic of the logocentric tradition gt
  suppresses plurality.

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PHILOSOPHICAL STYLE

• Personal experiences of political events as point
  of departure.
• A mixture of a narrative and analytical style.
• The integration of different kind of discourses
  (literature, history, philosophy, etc.).

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HEURISTIC VALUE

• History (Goldhagen).
• Post-structuralism (Kristeva).
• Post-marxism (Mouffe).
• Critical theory (Habermas).
• Queer theory (Butler).
• Sociology (Sennett).
• Feminism (Benhabib).

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2. THE BANALITY OF EVIL
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THE JEWISH QUESTION

• The Jewish question
• - refers to designate a whole series of
  shifting, loosely related, historical, cultural,
  religious, economic, political, and social
  issues
• - is an expression initially gained popularity
  in the writings of anti-semites
• - is related to an underlying anxiety about the
  fate of the Jewish people in the modern age.
• Arendt I have refused to abandon the Jewish
  question as the focal point of my historical and
  political thinking.

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OUTLAWS

• Outlaws gt Jewish parvenu and the Jewish pariah.
• Rahel Varnhagen despite her parvenu tendencies
  and aspirations, she finally affirms herself as a
  rebel, i.e. a pariah.
• There is a hidden tradition of the jew as a
  pariah.
• Schlemihl gt lord of dreams (Traumweltherscher).
• Conscious pariah gt a political response to the
  situation (for example Bernard Lazare or women
  who refuse to accept or assimilate to prevailing
  social relationships).

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TOTALITARIANISM

• Arendt is mainly interested in the origins of
  totalitarianism and not the causes.
• What are the two main origins
• 1. Totalitarianism.
• 2. Anti-Semitism.
• When are these origins triggered to become
  dangerous gt the end of the nation-state.
• Significant of national socialism the banality
  of evil.

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3. THE RIGHT TO HAVE RIGHTS
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THEORY AND PRACTICE

• The Origins of Totalitarianism gt to show that
  National Socialism and Stalinism is mainly the
  product of European and Anti-Semitism and
  Imperialism.
• The Human Condition gt what kind of action and
  thinking led to National Socialism and Stalinism.
• Vita contemplativa gt theory.
• Vita activa gt praxis.
• This philosophical opposition makes us blind for
  a more differentiated view on human action.

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THREE FORMS OF HUMAN ACTION

• Vita activa comprehends three forms of action
• 1. Labour (ponos) gt biological reproduction.
• 2. Work (poiesis) gt the production of tools
  and things.
• 3. Action (praxis) gt showing your uniqueness
  via deliberation.

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THE MODERN AGE

• A political crisis caused by the oppression of
  action.
• The animal laborans dominates the zoon politicon
  gt instrumental reason.
• The oikos becomes more important than the polis.
• The current reconfiguration of the relation
  between the public realm and the private realm
  implies a depolitization.

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THE RIGHTS OF STATELESS MIGRANTS

• The experience of statelessness (so-called
  illegal immigrants).
• The tension between inclusive human rights and
  the demand for territorial national sovereignty.
• Human rights were understood to be inalienable,
  ahistorical universal rights which were to be
  upheld even against the sovereignty of the state.
• Problem how can human rights be guaranteed and
  protected?
• Arendt gt the most basic right is the right to
  have rights (and that means to live in a
  framework where one is judged by ones actions
  and opinions) and a right to belong to some kind
  of organized community.

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• That the soft water in movement
• In time will winn from the mighty
• hard stone
• You know, the hard will lose.
• Bertold Brecht

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• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vFUwx_PnURMc