IV jornadas internacionais Hannah Arendt - "sobre a revolução 50 anos"
Revolution, foundation and freedom in Hannah Arendt's thought
The philosophical-political tradition in Hannah Arendts thought
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Author(s): |
Mariana de Mattos Rubiano
Total Authors: 1
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Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
Press: | São Paulo. |
Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) |
Defense date: | 2016-06-29 |
Examining board members: |
Alberto Ribeiro Gonçalves de Barros;
Cicero Romao Resende de Araujo;
Adriano Correia Silva;
Maria das Graças de Souza;
Edson Luis de Almeida Teles
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Advisor: | Alberto Ribeiro Gonçalves de Barros |
Abstract | |
This thesis aims at discussing primarily the book On Revolution by Hannah Arendt. Considering that this book has been less debated than Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition and Eichmann in Jerusalem by the commentators, my research seeks to add to the Arendtians thought literature. Moreover, it also aims at contributing with the debates of political philosophy by dealing with the main concepts introduced in On Revolution, such as freedom, action, power, foundation, resistance, sovereign, rule, government, representation, among others. I will demonstrate that in Arendts thought the concepts of revolution and of politics are formulated against the tradition and against the most influential theories of her time: the Marxism and the Liberalism. According to her, the traditional categories are not able to explain the novelties brought by revolutions. The Marxism supports the debate on social question over the political matters and it does not take into account the North-American Revolution. In turn, Liberalism mainly deals with the private activities and individual welfare thereby it devaluates the public activities and the revolutionaries experiences. In this sense, On Revolution came from an effort to valorize the political aspects of revolutions and to criticize the hegemonic theories in the 1960s. I hold that the critic bias of this book has not lost its strength: differently from historiography and political thought which have arose since 1980, Arendt does not assert that the French revolutionary experience was a complete failure nor consider the settlement of liberal representative government as the most important novelty of North-American Revolution. She discusses both the great acts and ideas and the misconception in the revolutions of the New and Old World. Taking it into account, this thesis will discuss the Arendtian political concepts, it will introduce Arendt debate with political thought and it will indicate her critic about the contemporary world. My hypothesis is that On Revolution can be interpreted as a narrative on history of concepts. I seek to demonstrate that the conceptual history in this book points to the distinction between Ancient, traditional and revolutionaries conceptions; it discloses the pathos of novelty which was brought by the revolutions; it allows to formulate through the conceptions of revolutionaries the stories on North-American and French Revolutions; it deals with some misleading concepts created by twentieth centurys theories; and it recovers forgotten concepts and experiences able to aid in the task of understanding the present. (AU) | |
FAPESP's process: | 11/22586-1 - Revolution, foundation and freedom in Hannah Arendt |
Grantee: | Mariana de Mattos Rubiano |
Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |