Georgia Southern faculty member Prof Karin Fry was a discussant at American Philosophical Associa... more Georgia Southern faculty member Prof Karin Fry was a discussant at American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Vancouver, Canada Progra
Chapter 2 introduces Arendt’s notion of freedom as experienced through political action that disc... more Chapter 2 introduces Arendt’s notion of freedom as experienced through political action that discloses ‘who,’ as opposed to ‘what’ the actor is, while it discloses the ‘world.’ I foreground the distinction Arendt makes between the ancient Greek political metaphors of productive and performance art. This distinction shows action as non-sovereign, as the actualization of natality, and as conditioned by plurality. I then examine the role of the spectator who retrospectively identifies the ‘who’ within a coherent narrative. The importance of a space of appearance is developed through the metaphor of the theatre. I conclude by exploring Arendt’s thesis that freedom depends on action’s continuous augmentation of the constitutional principles established by the founding moment of the political community, and her distinction between power and violence.
In Chapter 3, I explore appearances of the ‘daimon’ figure in Arendt’s work, especially in The Hu... more In Chapter 3, I explore appearances of the ‘daimon’ figure in Arendt’s work, especially in The Human Condition, and in the work of thinkers with whom Arendt engaged, including Plato. I argue that Arendt understands human action and thinking as inescapably revealing the existential illusion of a divine presence, through action’s ecstatic disclosure of meaning, through the ‘two-in-one’ structure of moral thinking, and through one’s public performance of thought as a ‘valid personality’ acting and judging within ‘boundary situations,’ concepts adopted from Karl Jaspers. I also explore Arendt’s worldly transformation of Augustine’s account of love, her examination of the temptation of political theology’s sanction of an absolute within modern, secular projects of political foundation, and the persistence of the grammar of transcendence in modern politics.
Chapter 5 engages with Arendt’s critique of Marx, highlighting some of Arendt’s ideas most fecund... more Chapter 5 engages with Arendt’s critique of Marx, highlighting some of Arendt’s ideas most fecund for reflection on contemporary global politics, including the ‘right to have rights.’ Arendt argues that Marx’s ‘socialized humanity’ has reflected and encouraged modern phenomena that have distorted the disclosure of the ‘who’ and the ‘world,’ namely the ‘glorification of labor,’ the ‘rise of the social,’ and ‘world alienation.’ Since Arendt holds that the ‘who’ cannot be adequately disclosed by the work of homo faber, nor labor tied to necessity, I distinguish her concept of action from Hegel’s and Marx’s work model of freedom. I assess Arendt’s critique of the ‘social question’ and address critics who read her prioritization of political freedom as a threat to justice and material equality.
This paper highlights the Aristotelian features of Amartya Sen's conception of practical reas... more This paper highlights the Aristotelian features of Amartya Sen's conception of practical reason within his larger approach to social justice, as he presents it in his latest book, "The Idea of Justice" (2009). It refers specifically to fellow functional capabilities theorist Martha C. Nussbaum's reading of Aristotle in her early work, "The Fragility of Goodness" (1986), and the contrast she draws between Aristotle, Plato, and the social contract tradition. The Aristotelian elements of Sen’s approach are among its most important and appealing. They are evident in Sen’s focus on functional capability as the most appropriate measure of just social outcomes, but also in his conception of practical reason. He sees public deliberation over questions of justice as necessarily comparative and immanent, inclusive of a plurality of situated perspectives and reasons, but at the same time open to enlightened critique and objective scrutiny. He also admits that the deliberation will often remain incomplete and only partially resolve disputes over what constitutes a just arrangement, in part because of a plurality of non-commensurable reasons of justice. Sen challenges transcendental institutionalist approaches to justice, including that of Rawls. These propose an image of a perfectly just society based on supposedly universal principles that all rational subjects could consent to, and then derive just institutions based on these principles. Instead, Sen's realization-focused comparison approach attempts to remove manifest injustices by comparing actually existing societies and various, potentially conflicting, principles of justice. In contract to transcendental institutionalism, Sen focuses on the realization of actual social outcomes, how to encourage behaviors and fulfill capabilities under a diversity of existing institutional frameworks, and the contexts of social choice.
"This work is a collective reflection on the modern self as a narrative. Modernity as a meta... more "This work is a collective reflection on the modern self as a narrative. Modernity as a metamorphic conglomeration of permeating discourses, new practices and institutional forms, a historical unfolding of centrifugal and centripetal discursive dynamics of regulation and normalization offers limitless grounds for a critical investigation. The modern self, both as the revelation of the inner self and as a reflection of the collective, arises from the dialogical interplay within the intersubjective communicative space of social discourse. The bestiary proposed in this series of articles attempts to rethink the spectacle consisting of modern dichotomies by which the self is declined along ontological, metaphysical, and ethical premises: the real and the ideal, the said and the unsaid, the rational and the irrational, the bound and the free, the familiar and the exotic, the universal and the particular, self and world. The reader is therefore encouraged to engage in a multiple reading of the articles presented in this collection. As individual scholarly pieces of inquiry, these articles provide thoughtful insights into the inexhaustible topic of modernity and the modern subject–they tell stories of the past, the present, and of a prospective future. As academic works, however, they also reflect and/or unsettle disciplinary paradigms and scholarly practices, from which they acquire legitimacy and visibility; they conform, apply, reconfigure and/or experiment with new grounds by borrowing from an eclectic mix of various thinkers, their tools, and their axiomatic propositions that constitute their theoretical and critical apparatus. This exercise is ultimately an introspective journey in which we are placed not only as the spectator–the one who gazes through the bars–but also the spectacle–the beast subject to the gaze–finding itself in a predicament of which the subject, itself, is the architect. "
Chapter 6 studies Arendt’s adaptation of Kant’s theory of aesthetic judgment as a model for polit... more Chapter 6 studies Arendt’s adaptation of Kant’s theory of aesthetic judgment as a model for political judgment, without the guidance of absolute standards. The responsibility to judge the unprecedented arises from the appearance of totalitarianism, which dissolves the reliability of common ethical standards, yet introduces acts whose novelty must still be understood. Reflective judgment serves as an ethical limitation to agonistic action and is crucial to non-violent, responsible ‘world’ building, given the condition of plurality. I proceed to question whether the purpose of a community of spectators is to reach rational consensus and the convergence of opinion, or whether judgment is an end in itself as an affirmation of freedom and plurality. Finally, I illuminate the similarity between Kant’s ‘genius’ and Arendt’s ‘daimon.’
This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom... more This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on action’s disclosure of the unique ‘who’ of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendt’s critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the ‘right to have rights,’ and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the ‘daimon’ metaphor that appears in Arendt’s own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical ...
Chapter 7 explores Arendt’s critique of modern teleological philosophies of history, including Ka... more Chapter 7 explores Arendt’s critique of modern teleological philosophies of history, including Kant, Hegel, and Marx, which she sees as a danger to human plurality, spontaneity, and dignity, through their dialectical logic that influenced totalitarian ideology, and their emphasis on necessary universal processes when explaining the meanings of acts. Arendt develops an alternative concept of time in response to Kafka and Benjamin, arguing that one thinks and acts in a gap between past and future, and can interrupt processes because of action’s natality, leaving a story behind that discloses the ‘who’ and the ‘world’ in a cosmos of meaning separate from universal progress narratives. Arendt sees Benjamin’s fragmentary historiography as a more appropriate approach that better preserves individual disclosures of the unique ‘who.’
University of Alberta Who's on Stage? Performative Disclosure in Hannah Arendt's Accoun... more University of Alberta Who's on Stage? Performative Disclosure in Hannah Arendt's Account of Political Action by ... Abstract Hannah Arendt argues that political action is only meaningful through the disclosure of who the actor uniquely is, and that this disclosure is the basis of ...
Chapter 4 explores how Heidegger’s depiction of Dasein’s disclosive relation to Being influences ... more Chapter 4 explores how Heidegger’s depiction of Dasein’s disclosive relation to Being influences Arendt’s conception of action in non-teleological terms. I show the connection between Heidegger’s conception of truth as aletheia, his understanding of freedom as openness to Being, and Arendt’s own concept of non-sovereign freedom experienced through self- and world-disclosive action. I revisit Heidegger’s lectures on the Aristotelian modes of aletheia with special attention to the difference between techne (technical know-how) and phronesis (practical wisdom), the respective modes of disclosure of poiesis and praxis. Arendt transforms Heidegger’s account of authentic Dasein to emphasize the natality of action and restore the dignity of opinion in the public sphere. To conclude, I study Heidegger’s influential critique of technological enframing as the dominant modern mode of disclosure.
Hannah Arendt and the Boundaries of the Public Sphere
The rise of populism and the polarization of traditional and new media pose threats to pluralisti... more The rise of populism and the polarization of traditional and new media pose threats to pluralistic democratic action and judgment. Citizens often vilify each other, deny each other the space to test and justify their perspectives publicly, either because they hold radically different political views, or because they ascribe an essentialist identity upon the other, one that they believe must be negated in accordance with the logic of their own ideology. This paper presents three vital resources in Hannah Arendt's thought for addressing these challenges to democracy. First, Arendt promotes physical-not merely virtual or digital-spaces of public deliberation in which actors disclose "who" they uniquely are and the "world" that contextualizes their action. Arendt proposes a principle of resistance to totalitarianism and a "responsibility for the world" as the appropriate limit to free action within these spaces. Second, Arendt presents a limit, or standard of intelligibility, to political action and speech permissible in public: the sensus communis of Kant's theory of aesthetic judgment. This standard of common sense, which binds the public sphere, demands that a speech act's intersubjective validity appeal to an objectivity that can be shared from different perspectives, but which allows for disagreement, and is not as restrictive as an Aristotelian ethos or an internally consistent ideology. Finally, Arendt asserts the imperative of factual truth telling and attention to the details of public phenomena, as necessary conditions for intelligible action and judgment in a pluralistic public sphere.
Georgia Southern faculty member Prof Karin Fry was a discussant at American Philosophical Associa... more Georgia Southern faculty member Prof Karin Fry was a discussant at American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Vancouver, Canada Progra
Chapter 2 introduces Arendt’s notion of freedom as experienced through political action that disc... more Chapter 2 introduces Arendt’s notion of freedom as experienced through political action that discloses ‘who,’ as opposed to ‘what’ the actor is, while it discloses the ‘world.’ I foreground the distinction Arendt makes between the ancient Greek political metaphors of productive and performance art. This distinction shows action as non-sovereign, as the actualization of natality, and as conditioned by plurality. I then examine the role of the spectator who retrospectively identifies the ‘who’ within a coherent narrative. The importance of a space of appearance is developed through the metaphor of the theatre. I conclude by exploring Arendt’s thesis that freedom depends on action’s continuous augmentation of the constitutional principles established by the founding moment of the political community, and her distinction between power and violence.
In Chapter 3, I explore appearances of the ‘daimon’ figure in Arendt’s work, especially in The Hu... more In Chapter 3, I explore appearances of the ‘daimon’ figure in Arendt’s work, especially in The Human Condition, and in the work of thinkers with whom Arendt engaged, including Plato. I argue that Arendt understands human action and thinking as inescapably revealing the existential illusion of a divine presence, through action’s ecstatic disclosure of meaning, through the ‘two-in-one’ structure of moral thinking, and through one’s public performance of thought as a ‘valid personality’ acting and judging within ‘boundary situations,’ concepts adopted from Karl Jaspers. I also explore Arendt’s worldly transformation of Augustine’s account of love, her examination of the temptation of political theology’s sanction of an absolute within modern, secular projects of political foundation, and the persistence of the grammar of transcendence in modern politics.
Chapter 5 engages with Arendt’s critique of Marx, highlighting some of Arendt’s ideas most fecund... more Chapter 5 engages with Arendt’s critique of Marx, highlighting some of Arendt’s ideas most fecund for reflection on contemporary global politics, including the ‘right to have rights.’ Arendt argues that Marx’s ‘socialized humanity’ has reflected and encouraged modern phenomena that have distorted the disclosure of the ‘who’ and the ‘world,’ namely the ‘glorification of labor,’ the ‘rise of the social,’ and ‘world alienation.’ Since Arendt holds that the ‘who’ cannot be adequately disclosed by the work of homo faber, nor labor tied to necessity, I distinguish her concept of action from Hegel’s and Marx’s work model of freedom. I assess Arendt’s critique of the ‘social question’ and address critics who read her prioritization of political freedom as a threat to justice and material equality.
This paper highlights the Aristotelian features of Amartya Sen's conception of practical reas... more This paper highlights the Aristotelian features of Amartya Sen's conception of practical reason within his larger approach to social justice, as he presents it in his latest book, "The Idea of Justice" (2009). It refers specifically to fellow functional capabilities theorist Martha C. Nussbaum's reading of Aristotle in her early work, "The Fragility of Goodness" (1986), and the contrast she draws between Aristotle, Plato, and the social contract tradition. The Aristotelian elements of Sen’s approach are among its most important and appealing. They are evident in Sen’s focus on functional capability as the most appropriate measure of just social outcomes, but also in his conception of practical reason. He sees public deliberation over questions of justice as necessarily comparative and immanent, inclusive of a plurality of situated perspectives and reasons, but at the same time open to enlightened critique and objective scrutiny. He also admits that the deliberation will often remain incomplete and only partially resolve disputes over what constitutes a just arrangement, in part because of a plurality of non-commensurable reasons of justice. Sen challenges transcendental institutionalist approaches to justice, including that of Rawls. These propose an image of a perfectly just society based on supposedly universal principles that all rational subjects could consent to, and then derive just institutions based on these principles. Instead, Sen's realization-focused comparison approach attempts to remove manifest injustices by comparing actually existing societies and various, potentially conflicting, principles of justice. In contract to transcendental institutionalism, Sen focuses on the realization of actual social outcomes, how to encourage behaviors and fulfill capabilities under a diversity of existing institutional frameworks, and the contexts of social choice.
"This work is a collective reflection on the modern self as a narrative. Modernity as a meta... more "This work is a collective reflection on the modern self as a narrative. Modernity as a metamorphic conglomeration of permeating discourses, new practices and institutional forms, a historical unfolding of centrifugal and centripetal discursive dynamics of regulation and normalization offers limitless grounds for a critical investigation. The modern self, both as the revelation of the inner self and as a reflection of the collective, arises from the dialogical interplay within the intersubjective communicative space of social discourse. The bestiary proposed in this series of articles attempts to rethink the spectacle consisting of modern dichotomies by which the self is declined along ontological, metaphysical, and ethical premises: the real and the ideal, the said and the unsaid, the rational and the irrational, the bound and the free, the familiar and the exotic, the universal and the particular, self and world. The reader is therefore encouraged to engage in a multiple reading of the articles presented in this collection. As individual scholarly pieces of inquiry, these articles provide thoughtful insights into the inexhaustible topic of modernity and the modern subject–they tell stories of the past, the present, and of a prospective future. As academic works, however, they also reflect and/or unsettle disciplinary paradigms and scholarly practices, from which they acquire legitimacy and visibility; they conform, apply, reconfigure and/or experiment with new grounds by borrowing from an eclectic mix of various thinkers, their tools, and their axiomatic propositions that constitute their theoretical and critical apparatus. This exercise is ultimately an introspective journey in which we are placed not only as the spectator–the one who gazes through the bars–but also the spectacle–the beast subject to the gaze–finding itself in a predicament of which the subject, itself, is the architect. "
Chapter 6 studies Arendt’s adaptation of Kant’s theory of aesthetic judgment as a model for polit... more Chapter 6 studies Arendt’s adaptation of Kant’s theory of aesthetic judgment as a model for political judgment, without the guidance of absolute standards. The responsibility to judge the unprecedented arises from the appearance of totalitarianism, which dissolves the reliability of common ethical standards, yet introduces acts whose novelty must still be understood. Reflective judgment serves as an ethical limitation to agonistic action and is crucial to non-violent, responsible ‘world’ building, given the condition of plurality. I proceed to question whether the purpose of a community of spectators is to reach rational consensus and the convergence of opinion, or whether judgment is an end in itself as an affirmation of freedom and plurality. Finally, I illuminate the similarity between Kant’s ‘genius’ and Arendt’s ‘daimon.’
This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom... more This book presents an account of Hannah Arendt’s performative and non-sovereign theory of freedom and political action, with special focus on action’s disclosure of the unique ‘who’ of each agent. It aims to illuminate Arendt’s critique of sovereign rule, totalitarianism, and world-alienation, her defense of a distinct political sphere for engaged citizen action and judgment, her conception of the ‘right to have rights,’ and her rejection of teleological philosophies of history. Arendt proposes that in modern, pluralistic, secular public spheres, no one metaphysical or religious idea can authoritatively validate political actions or opinions absolutely. At the same time, she sees action and thinking as revealing an inescapable existential illusion of a divine element in human beings, a notion represented well by the ‘daimon’ metaphor that appears in Arendt’s own work and in key works by Plato, Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kant, with which she engages. While providing a post-metaphysical ...
Chapter 7 explores Arendt’s critique of modern teleological philosophies of history, including Ka... more Chapter 7 explores Arendt’s critique of modern teleological philosophies of history, including Kant, Hegel, and Marx, which she sees as a danger to human plurality, spontaneity, and dignity, through their dialectical logic that influenced totalitarian ideology, and their emphasis on necessary universal processes when explaining the meanings of acts. Arendt develops an alternative concept of time in response to Kafka and Benjamin, arguing that one thinks and acts in a gap between past and future, and can interrupt processes because of action’s natality, leaving a story behind that discloses the ‘who’ and the ‘world’ in a cosmos of meaning separate from universal progress narratives. Arendt sees Benjamin’s fragmentary historiography as a more appropriate approach that better preserves individual disclosures of the unique ‘who.’
University of Alberta Who's on Stage? Performative Disclosure in Hannah Arendt's Accoun... more University of Alberta Who's on Stage? Performative Disclosure in Hannah Arendt's Account of Political Action by ... Abstract Hannah Arendt argues that political action is only meaningful through the disclosure of who the actor uniquely is, and that this disclosure is the basis of ...
Chapter 4 explores how Heidegger’s depiction of Dasein’s disclosive relation to Being influences ... more Chapter 4 explores how Heidegger’s depiction of Dasein’s disclosive relation to Being influences Arendt’s conception of action in non-teleological terms. I show the connection between Heidegger’s conception of truth as aletheia, his understanding of freedom as openness to Being, and Arendt’s own concept of non-sovereign freedom experienced through self- and world-disclosive action. I revisit Heidegger’s lectures on the Aristotelian modes of aletheia with special attention to the difference between techne (technical know-how) and phronesis (practical wisdom), the respective modes of disclosure of poiesis and praxis. Arendt transforms Heidegger’s account of authentic Dasein to emphasize the natality of action and restore the dignity of opinion in the public sphere. To conclude, I study Heidegger’s influential critique of technological enframing as the dominant modern mode of disclosure.
Hannah Arendt and the Boundaries of the Public Sphere
The rise of populism and the polarization of traditional and new media pose threats to pluralisti... more The rise of populism and the polarization of traditional and new media pose threats to pluralistic democratic action and judgment. Citizens often vilify each other, deny each other the space to test and justify their perspectives publicly, either because they hold radically different political views, or because they ascribe an essentialist identity upon the other, one that they believe must be negated in accordance with the logic of their own ideology. This paper presents three vital resources in Hannah Arendt's thought for addressing these challenges to democracy. First, Arendt promotes physical-not merely virtual or digital-spaces of public deliberation in which actors disclose "who" they uniquely are and the "world" that contextualizes their action. Arendt proposes a principle of resistance to totalitarianism and a "responsibility for the world" as the appropriate limit to free action within these spaces. Second, Arendt presents a limit, or standard of intelligibility, to political action and speech permissible in public: the sensus communis of Kant's theory of aesthetic judgment. This standard of common sense, which binds the public sphere, demands that a speech act's intersubjective validity appeal to an objectivity that can be shared from different perspectives, but which allows for disagreement, and is not as restrictive as an Aristotelian ethos or an internally consistent ideology. Finally, Arendt asserts the imperative of factual truth telling and attention to the details of public phenomena, as necessary conditions for intelligible action and judgment in a pluralistic public sphere.
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