Contemporary politics is dominated by discussions of rights and liberties as the proper subjects about which citizens should be concerned in the political sphere. In Public Space and Political Experience: An Arendtian Interpretation, David Antonini argues that Hannah Arendt conceived of politics differently and that her thought can help us retrieve a more authentic sense of politics as the site where citizens can speak and act together about matters of shared concern. Antonini shows that citizens can experience politics together if they approach it not as a realm where privately interested individuals compete for their rights or liberties but instead as a space where plural human beings come together as distinct yet equal creatures. Antonini argues that if we read Arendt as primarily concerned with political experience, we can reimagine common political concepts such as freedom, power, revolution, and civil disobedience. The book posits that politics should be considered a fundamental form of human experience, one rooted in what Arendt refers to as the existential condition of politics—human plurality. If plurality is the existential condition out of which our political life emerges, we can enliven and reimagine the possibilities that political life can provide for contemporary citizens.
Author(s): David Antonini
Publisher: Lexington Books
Year: 2021
Language: English
City: Lanham, Md
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Content
Introduction
Notes
Chapter 1: Modernity and the Need of Political Experience
Introduction
The Human Condition within Arendt’s Thought and Her Critique of Modernity
Earth and World Alienation
The Logic of Process and the Rise of Laboring
Nature and History as a Process
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 2: Arendt’s Phenomenological Concept of Action, Part I
Introduction
The Constellation Concept of Action in Arendt
Plurality
“The Who” Revealed in Action
The Web of Human Relationships
The Narration of Action
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 3: Arendt’s Phenomenological Concept of Action, Part II
Power
The Space of Appearances
Freedom
Action: Agonal versus Deliberative
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 4: Arendt’s Political Concept of Action, Part I: Revolution
Introduction
The Meaning of the Revolution
The Constitution
The Declaration of Independence
The Act of Founding
Founding as Promising
The Principle of “People Power”
Separation of Powers
Notes
Chapter 5: Arendt’s Political Concept of Action, Part II: Civil Disobedience
Introduction
Distinguishing between Civil Disobedience and Conscientious Objection
The Positive Content of Civil Disobedience
Arendt and Constitutional Democracy
Black Lives Matter as a Form of Civil Disobedience in 2020
Black Lives Matter as a Political Principle
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 6: Political Speech as Horizontal Political Experience: Judgment and Opinion Formation
Introduction
The Emergence of Judgment as a Problem for Arendt
Thinking, Judging, and Eichmann
Spectators as Retrospective Judges
The Notion of Opinion as Political Speech in the Public Space
Judgment in the Public Space
Performative Political Speech as Meaningful Political Experience
Notes
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
