TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY: Intellectual Heroes and Key Themes

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TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY Intellectual
Heroes and Key Themes

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LECTURES

1. The pariah as rebel.
2. The hope of the hopeless.
3. Message in a bottle.
4. Absolute free.
5. Genealogy as critique.
6. Human flourishing.

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THE PARIAH AS REBEL
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• 1. THINKING WITHOUT A BANISTER
• What about philosophy?
• 2. THE BANALITY OF EVIL
• How to conceive 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

• BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
• 1906 Born October 26, in Hannover.
• 1909 Emigration to Königsberg.
• 1913 Death of her father.
• 1924-1928 Studies philosophy, theology and Greek
  in Marburg, Freiburg and Heidelberg.
• 1929 Marriage to Günther Stern (Anders).
• 1933 Imprisoned by the Gestapo and escape to
  Paris.
• 1940 Marriage to Heinrich Blücher and detention
  in the concentration camp Gurs.
• 1941 Emigration to the United States.
• 1941-1944 Editor of the journal Aufbau.
• 1953-1956 Professor at Brooklyn College (New
  York).
• 1963-1967 Professor at University of Chicago.
• 1967-1975 Professor at the New School of Social
  Research (New York).
• 1975 Died December 4, in New York.

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MAJOR WORKS

• Liebesbegriff bei Augustin (1929).
• Rahel Varnhagen 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).
• The Life of the Mind (1975).

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INTENTIONS

• The philosophy of Arendt is a reflection about
  the vita activa (especially in The Human
  Condition) and the vita contemplativa (especially
  in The Life of the Mind).
• Features of the vita activa gt labour, work and
  action.
• Features of the vita contemplativa gt thinking,
  willing and judging.
• The intentions to study both
• - to reconstruct the kind of action and thinking
  that resulted in National Socialism and
  Stalinism.
• - to do justice to the intrinsic value of
  political action in comparison to labour and
  work.
• - to sketch the path from the zoon politikon to
  the animal laborans.
• - to analyze the political crisis of the modern
  age.

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ANTI-FOUNDATIONALISM

• According to Arendt philosophy is not about
  epistemology, but about politics.
• Since Plato many philosophers impose their
  standards of truth upon politics.
• This totalitarian way of thinking cant do
  justice to the plurality of lifestyles and
  cultures.
• Thinking without a banister (Denken ohne
  Geländer) gt there is not a fixed foundation upon
  which to base thinking.
• Critique of the logocentric tradition in
  philosophy, because it suppresses plurality.
• Arendt criticizes grand narratives that
  presuppose historical necessity and neglect
  contingency.

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PHILOSOPHICAL STYLE

• Arendt insists that her philosophy was grounded
  in personal experiences.
• She never perceived herself as a professional
  philosopher I do not belong to the circle of
  philosophers.
• Personal experiences of political events as point
  of departure of reflection.
• A mixture of a narrative and an analytical style.
• The integration of different kind of discourses
  (literature, history, philosophy, etc.).

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HEURISTIC VALUE

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

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2. THE BANALITY OF EVIL
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PHILOSOPHY AFTER AUSCHWITZ

• Auschwitz imprinted as the name for all
  concentration camps - is for philosophers like
  Arendt and Adorno a breaking point in history.
• When Arendt heard for the first time about
  Auschwitz, about Nazis who systematically
  exterminate innocent people in death camps, she
  couldnt believe it That was in 1943. And at
  first we didnt believe it () And then a
  half-year later we believed it after all, because
  we had the proof. (..) It was really as if an
  abyss had opened This ought not to have
  happened. And I dont mean just the number of
  victims. I mean the method, the fabrication of
  corpses and so on. () Something happened there
  to which we cannot reconcile ourselves. None of
  us ever can.
• For Arendt the concentration camps were the most
  consequential institution of totalitarian rule.

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THE JEWISH QUESTION

• In many works Arendt reflects on the so-called
  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 (a Traumweltherscher
  as, for example, Heinrich Heine).
• 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

• Totalitarianism gt the totalitarian consciousness
  and the totalitarian rule are intertwined and
  penetrate the whole state.
• Arendt is interested in the origins of
  totalitarianism.
• Two types of origins
• 1. The socio-psychological constellation gt
  anti-Semitism.
• 2. The socio-cultural constellation gt
  imperialism.

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ANTI-SEMITISM

• Arendt criticizes clichés about anti-Semitism gt
  the expression of an increased nationalism and
  Jews as a scapegoat.
• Anti-Semitism increases just at the nation-states
  in Europe becomes weaker and there is an
  emergence of ethnic pan-Slavic and pan-German
  movements.
• The Jew is at first place seen as a pariah and
  not that much as a scapegoat.
• The totalitarian disaster starts with the decline
  of the republican nation-state.

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IMPERIALISM

• Imperialism gt a mechanism characterized by
  expansion for the sake of expansion, that is
  related to power and capital.
• Power is imperialistic because it is uncoupled
  from the nationstate and directed to a worldwide
  expansion.
• Capital is imperialistic because its accumulation
  will conquer all the pre-capitalist domains in
  the world.
• Colonialism is the experimental garden for 1)
  racist ideologies and 2) bureaucratic forms of
  domination.
• Driven by ideologies as pan-Slavism and
  pan-Germanism totalitarian regimes made out of
  racism and bureaucracy a destructive force.

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EVIL

• War criminal Adolf Eichmann who hide himself in
  Argentina was in 1960 kidnapped by the secret
  service of Israel.
• Arendt wrote a report about the Eichmann trial.
• Central thesis gt evil is not absolute, but banal.
  
• Eichmann was an average citizens for whom it was
  honourable to do what his leaders asked him to do
  (Befehl ist Befehl!).

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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 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.
• The philosophical opposition between theory and
  praxis makes people blind for a more
  differentiated view on human action.
• Theory and praxis are intertwined gt one should
  study the vita contemplativa and the vita activa.

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A POLITICAL ANIMAL

• Arendt argues that the separation of the private
  sphere and the public sphere is a precondition
  for a modern democracy.
• Zoon politikon (Aristoteles) gt political animal.
• Social life gt is dominated by biological needs.
• Political life gt is of a higher order than the
  social life.
• Liberty gt manifests itself rather in political
  life than in social life.
• Political virtue gt to participate as an active
  citizen in the public sphere.

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A CLASSICAL DICHOTOMY
PUBLIC SPHERE PRIVATE SPHERE
Polis (political activity) Oikos (domestic life)
Governmental authority (state) Self-regulation (market, family)
Transparent (open) Not transparent (closed)
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THREE FORMS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY

• In order to clarify the specific character of the
  public sphere, Arendt reflects on human activity.
• Vita activa comprehends three forms of activity
• 1. Labour (ponos Arbeiten) gt biological
  reproduction.
• 2. Work (poiesis, technê Herstellen) gt the
  production of tools and things.
• 3. Action (praxis Handeln) gt showing your
  uniqueness via deliberation.

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ANIMAL LABORANS

• Labour is the activity that concerns the human
  condition of life.
• Central question does labour fulfils the
  biological needs of mankind?
• In order to secure the maintenance of life labour
  is a never-ending story.
• Labour is a kind of bondage, because it is
  induced by necessity.
• It refers to consumption and depolitization.
• Labour belongs to the private sphere, i.e. the
  oikos.

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HOMO FABER

• Work is the activity that concerns the human
  condition of worldliness.
• Central question does work creates a world that
  is useful for mankind?
• It is the activity which corresponds to the
  unnaturalness of human existence, which is not
  embedded in, and whose mortality is not
  compensated by, the species ever-recurring
  life-cycle.
• Work is the creation of artefacts, i.e. things
  that are not given in nature.
• It refers to the establishment of a secunda
  natura.

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ZOON POLITICON

• Action is the activity that refers to the human
  condition of plurality.
• Central question does an action recognizes the
  plurality of perspectives and the struggle for
  freedom?
• Plurality is a question of identity and
  difference, because we are all the same, that
  is, human, in such a way that nobody is ever the
  same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or
  will live.
• It presumes the recognition that people judge an
  act from different perspectives.
• Via an action mankind realizes its freedom.

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NATALITY

• Freedom is the ability to make a new start.
• It is rooted in natality gt by virtue of being
  born every individual introduces something that
  is new in the world.
• Although labour and work are also related to
  natality, action implies re-enacting the new
  beginning of the birth of an individual the new
  beginning inherent in birth can make itself felt
  in the world only because the newcomer possesses
  the capacity of beginning something anew, that is
  of acting.

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THE MODERN AGE

• The modern age is characterized by a political
  crisis caused by the oppression of action.
• The animal laborans dominates the zoon
  politicon gt instrumental reason undermines
  public deliberation.
• 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.
• World alienation gt the loss of an
  intersubjectively constituted world of public
  action that is helpful to figure out what is (for
  the moment) the truth, whats one identity and
  what has to be done.
• Earth alienation gt the attempt of people to
  escape via modern technology from their
  earth-bound condition.

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THE RIGHTS OF STATELESS MIGRANTS

• The experience of being an illegal migrant
  (displaced person or so-called illegal
  immigrants) is important for the Arendt. The
  experience of statelessness.
• 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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RECOMMENDED

1. The Human Condition (1958) translations in
   several languages.
2. The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
   translations in several languages.
3. Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Hannah Arendt. For Love
   of the World (1982) translations in several
   languages.