POLSC 31 (LT1) - Arendt

• 1. thinking (the invisible dialogue of the 2-in-1) and judging (transition to the world of appearance)

  • Thinking (2-in-1)

  1. Dialogue between me and myself. 
  2. Invisible activity that you have to do with yourself.
  3. Primary rule is consistency. 
  4. Political implication: If you’re used to thinking, you end up catching the inconsistencies of what you profess and what you do
  5. Unavoidable if you want to have a sense of integrity. 
  6. Thinking is important because it sharpens your capacity for judgment. 
• 1. thinking (the invisible dialogue of the 2-in-1) and judging (transition to the world of appearance)

  • Judgment 

  1. Focused on particulars. 
  2. Intermediary between thought and action. 
  3. Enters the sphere of plurality.
• 1. Natality
  2. Arendt’s political theory is existential in nature, at the start of her political theory, she uses ontological characteristics to define what makes human beings human. 
• • Natality
  • beginning, spontaneity
  • To realize this spontaneity requires courage.
  • Courage liberates us from the anxiety about life in order for us to celebrate the freedom of the world.    

  1. Courage is the most important value for Arendt, because this is the first human quality. Having courage will ensure all other qualities. 
  2. Beginning - something new comes into the World. 
  3. Each work of human beings gives opportunity to spontaneity.
• 1. Natality

  • bodily state, vulnerability

  1. Human beings are bodily, vulnerable and naked. 
  2. Spontaneity -> Nakedness 
• 1. Plurality
  2. The world of appearance. You are in the sphere of others but you are also seen. 
  3. The world is based on both equality and difference. 

  • Equality - shared world 
  • Difference - sense of space for self-expression.
• 1. freedom (as attribute of the will) - your own autonomy 

  • interior freedom 

  1. Inner freedom only happens if there is no inner constraints 
  2. Man would not know inner freedom if he had not first experienced a condition of being free among others as a worldy tangible reality.
• 1. freedom (as attribute of the will)

  • free will

  1. Modern invention, a master of one’s internal life and a slave 
  2. If freedom is free will, there is no worldly reality 
• 1. freedom (as attribute of the will)

  • Freedom of choice (liberium arbitrium)

  1. Freedom is not freedom of choice. 
  2. Freedom is not choosing alternative means for the ends that are there
• 1. freedom (as attribute of the will)

  • Freedom as sovereignty 

  1. Freedom is not the non-political aim of politics ; it is a marginal phenomenon that is needed to form the boundary of government. It is needed to realize politics whose end is the security of man.
• 1. freedom (as attached to action)

  • freedom “to meet other people in deed and word”

  1. Freedom is integrally connected to action. 
  2. We become aware of freedom or its opposite in our intercourse with others, not in intercourse with ourselves. 
• 1. freedom (as attached to action)

  • the faculty of beginning (spontaneity)

  1. Freedom is tied to beginning 
  2. Freedom was experienced in spontaneity
• 1. the notion of action rooted in the two interrelated sets of words in ancient Greek and Latin (pp. 41-42):

  • archein (Gr.): “to begin, to lead and, finally, to rule” agere (Lat.): “to set something in motion”

  1. Beginning, leading, and ruling are the outstanding qualities of the free man, which bears witness to an experience where being free and the capacity to begin something are coincided. 
  2. Indicates that only those who could begin something new were already rulers and had thus liberated themselves from the necessities of life.
• 1. the notion of action rooted in the two interrelated sets of words in ancient Greek and Latin (pp. 41-42):

  • prattein (Gr.): “to carry something through”

  1. Only with the help of others could the archein, the ruler, beginner, and leader really act, (prattein) carry through what he started to do. 
• 1. the notion of action rooted in the two interrelated sets of words in ancient Greek and Latin (pp. 41-42):

  • gerere (Lat.): “the enduring and supporting continuation of past acts which result in res gestae, the deeds and events we call historical.”

  1. To be free and to begin are interconnected through a different way. 
• 1. To be free and to begin are interconnected through a different way. 
  2. Roman freedom was a legacy bequeathed by the founders of Rome to the Roman people which was tied to the beginning their forefathers established by founding the City. Their descendants managed affairs and bore the consequences. All this together are the res gestae of the Roman republic. 
  3. Romans always felt bound  to the beginning of Roman history because this beginning contained the authentic element of Roman freedom which made their history political.
• 1. the notion of action rooted in the two interrelated sets of words in ancient Greek and Latin (pp. 41-42):

  • In both stances, action occurs in two different stages. 
• 1. vita activa

  • Labor 

  1. Maintenance of life. 
  2. Judged by its ability to sustain life
• 1. vita activa

  • Work

  1. Sociality, sphere of making production 
  2. The structures that work leaves behind are long lasting, and are judged by its ability to build and maintain a world fit for human use. 
• 1. vita activa

  • Action 

  1. highest realization of the viva ‘activa’ 
  2. Sphere of politics. 
  3. In the public realm.
• • 3 types of totalitarianism

  1. Ideological
  2. Social
  3. Institutional
• • 3 types of totalitarianism
  • Ideological
  • Form of rule – a specific set of principles for a specific means of organizing and executing authority in a state.
• • 3 types of totalitarianism
  • Social
  • Social movements – informal networks or formal organizations in civil society that are intended to promote a specific totalitarian ideology. 
  • Contributes to supporting the state’s totalitarian ideology through mass mobilization on the part of the members of civil society.
• • 3 types of totalitarianism
  • Institutional 
  • The way the state imposes uniformity on society through its totalitarian ideology and form of rule. 
  • The state’s objective is for its totalitarian ideology to permeate all areas of society. 
• • 3-fold dehumanizing purpose of totalitarianism 
  • Undermining of legal status
  • Degradation of moral status 
  • Eradication of psychological status
• • Undermining of legal status (denial of “right to citizenship and basic rights”)
  • Make the legal status of the individual superfluous, and thereby also deny the individual’s right to citizenship and basic rights. 
  • The public sphere is also undermined. 
• • Degradation of moral status 
  • Degrade the individual's moral status so that the individual ceases to be a member of humanity and is without any entitlement to a life of human dignity 
• • Eradication of psychological status
  • Eradicate the individual’s psychological status by destroying his or her personality and bodily capacity for free action and feelings of affiliation with a shared world.