Overpowering violence. Hannah Arendt

Authors

  • Ionuţ BÂRLIBA Al.I. Cuza University of Iasi Department of Philosophy Bd. Carol I, 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania

Keywords:

Hannah Arendt, violence, politics, political theory, power

Abstract

There is no novelty in saying that violence has always played an enormous role in human affairs. Nobody engaged in thought about history and politics can argue about this statement. Nevertheless, Hannah Arendt observes that, surprisingly, violence has been seldom singled out for special consideration. Even if it was Clausevitz who had said that war is the continuations of politics by other means or the more known Engels, who defined violence as the accelerator of economic development, the emphasis was not mainly on the concept of violence but more on politics and economics. However violence was always there and therefore it was taken for granted and therefore it was neglected. In this respect Hannah Arend’s aim in her essay On Violence is to throw light upon the concept of violence as a concept in itself, distinct from other notions and related with the political issues of her time.

References

Arendt, Hannah, Crises of the republic, Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, 1973.

Hansen, Phillip, Hannah Arendt-Politics, History and Citizenship, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1993.

Isaac, C. Jeffrey, Arendt, Camus and Modern Rebellion, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1992.

Johnson, Altenbernd Patricia, On Arendt, Wadsworth, 2001.

Passerin D’Entreves, Maurizio, The political philosophy of Hannah Arendt, Routledge, London, 1994.

Tlaba, Gabriel Masooane, Politics and freedom, Human Will and Action in the Thought of Hannah Arendt, University Press of America, Boston, 1987.

Villa, Danna (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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Published

2015-05-15