Browsing by Subject "Arendt"

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Open Access
Exploring the possibilities for the social and the political in the public-private disctinction in Arendt
(2011) Yıldırım, Senem
This dissertation basically asks the question of whether the public- private dichotomy in Arendt‟s theory is an absolute one. This question is a result of the fact that the intricate layers in the distinction between the public and the private in Arendt‟s works has not critically examined within the literature. In answering that question, this dissertation argues that the multi-layered terrain of Arendt‟s political theory makes it possible to point out some conceptual spheres that transcend a particular understanding of the mentioned dichotomy. This kind of inquiring reading enables one to escape the chains of dichotomous thinking and to come up with an alternative theoretical space for thinking Arendt‟s conception of politics. Correspondingly, this dissertation points out the concepts of work and social as possible loopholes that transcend the dichotomous thinking in Arendt‟s theory. Possible implication of pointing out these loopholes is to challenge to the fixed nature of the public-private distinction. This challenge directly effects how one positions the political within the dichotomy. If the political is not observed within the confines of the public-private distinction in every context, it means that it sometimes exists within an in-between space of sociability. The idea of civil society as an associational life in contemporary political experience corresponds to that in-between space. This particular reading points out a contemporary political experience, in which the political and the social co-exist. It also offers an Arendtian perspective to critically reflect on how we experience politics within the space of contemporary civil society.
Open Access
Three rival views of tradition (Arendt, Oakeshott and MacIntyre)
(Brill, 2012) Alexander, J.
If we define tradition too hastily we leave to one side the question of what the relevance of tradition is for us. Here the concept of tradition is opened up by considering the different views of it taken by Hannah Arendt, Michael Oakeshott and Alasdair MacIntyre. We see that each has put tradition into a fully developed picture of what our predicament is in modernity; and that each has differed in their assessment of what our relation to tradition is or should be. Arendt sees tradition as something which no longer conditions action, Oakeshott sees tradition as something which conditions all action, and MacIntyre sees tradition as something which should condition right action. In each case, the view of tradition is clearly one element in an attempt to see how the most important constituent elements of human existence-variously called the human condition, human conduct, or human virtue-should be understood in a modernity which is ours because it has put the traditional concept of tradition into question. © 2012 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.