The Hidden Philosophy of Hannah Arendt

201 Pages·2002·0.86 MB·English

by  Margaret Betz Hull

The Hidden Philosophy
of Hannah Arendt
The central argument of this book is that Hannah Arendt’s deserved place
in the history of Western philosophy has been overlooked (to the extent
that some history of philosophy dictionaries omit her entirely), and
recognition of her contribution is long overdue. In part a result of Arendt’s
own insistence on calling herself a “political thinker” throughout her
career, this is also due to the common tendency in philosophy, according
to Arendt, of denigrating the political.
This book explores the indisputable philosophical dimensions of
Arendt’s work. In particular, it examines her theoretical commitment to
recognizing humanity as a plurality, which avoids the common mistake
in Western philosophy of theoretically overemphasizing the self in
isolation. Arendt has said that she regards solipsism to be the most
“persistent and pernicious problem” of Western philosophy, and, in this
respect, the author considers Arendt to be well ahead of her time. The
book also maintains that Arendt’s own personal dealings with her identity,
namely her Jewishness and her womanhood, work to inform us on
questions of identity politics and public and private aspects of the self.
Margaret Betz Hull received a PhD in Philosophy from Temple
University, Pennsylvania. Her areas of interest and work include political
philosophy, Continental philosophy, feminist theory, and the ethical
treatment of animals. She is the author of A Progression of Thought and
the Primacy of Interaction and Post-Modernism Meets Pop Cartoon:
Michel Foucault and Matt Groening.

THE HIDDEN
PHILOSOPHY OF
HANNAH ARENDT
Margaret Betz Hull
First published 2002
by RoutledgeCurzon
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeCurzon
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2002 Margaret Betz Hull
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-22067-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-27551-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-7007-1704-8 (Print Edition)
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Political action and “the old suspicions of
philosophers” 6
2 Arendt’s philosophy: the primacy of plurality
and interaction 40
3 Professional philosophy versus philosophy
as philanthropia: Arendt’s influences 75
4 The Arendtian person: Hannah Arendt as Jew,
Hannah Arendt as woman 123
Notes 171
Bibliography 183
Index 189
v

PREFACE
To speak of a “hidden philosophy” of Hannah Arendt is to elicit her own
terminology, to conjure up her own professional preoccupation. The play
of light and darkness, of exposure and concealment, are topics always
ubiquitously present in Arendt’s thought and work. In its best-known
form, Arendt spoke of the veiled and protected intimacy of the private
realm as distinguished from the harsh brightness of the public realm.
Arendt understood the juxtaposition of light and dark here to be
complementary, each preserving a sanctuary of sorts for the different
needs of human life. Just as each human life needs to recede into the
shadows of the private to rest, to nourish itself, to find intimacy, so too
does it seek out the brightness of the public to be seen and heard as
uniquely human by others.
Arendt also wrote of “dark times,” a reference to a historical period
in which the public realm “has been obscured and the world becomes so
dubious that people have ceased to ask anymore of politics than that it
show due consideration for their vital interests and personal liberty.”
The darkness that falls over the public realm in those times directly
opposes the proper function of the public, which is “to throw light on the
affairs of men by providing a space of appearances in which they can
show in deed and word, for better or worse, who they are and what they
can do … .” “Darkness has come,” Arendt explains, “when the light is
extinguished.” It signals a time when human interaction has broken down
and becomes meaningless. But even in times of this mournful darkness,
Arendt offers the possibility of “illumination” emanating from those rare
and precious few individuals who, through their lives and work, offer
the world a glimmer of hope. In Arendt’s view, leaving the shadows in
order to appear, to be seen and heard, engenders the opportunity to become
real, to gain distinction, to create meaning, and to be remembered.
To speak of hiddenness in relation to Arendt, therefore, is to invite
others into an examination of this play of light and dark, of exposure and
vii
PREFACE
concealment, of knowledge and mystery. My intent coincides with the
one proposed by Melvyn Hill in Recovery of the Public World, in which
he claims “consideration of Hannah Arendt’s positions can illuminate
various issues that otherwise remain obscure or neglected because of the
assumptions made by those who swim in the mainstream” (1979: x).
The following is a journey of enlightening discovery into the philosophy
of Hannah Arendt.
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like most complicated yet worthwhile projects, this could not have come
to fruition without the support, interest, help, and patience of many people.
I would like to thank Jitendra Mohanty for encouraging my interest in
this subject and Oliver Leaman for his editorial help. I would also like to
thank my friends for their willingness to act as my sounding board as I
attempted to work through difficult notions. I would like to thank my
parents, Joseph and Antoinette, my models for academic success and
moral integrity. And, finally, I would like to thank my husband, Wesley,
who has supported me with love and patience in too many ways to count;
without him, this would not have been possible at all. This book is
dedicated to my son.
Sections of Elisabeth Young-Bruehl’s Hannah Arendt: For Love of
the World are reprinted with the permission of Yale University Press ©
1982. Sections of Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition are reprinted
with the permission of University of Chicago Press © 1958. Sections of
Men in Dark Times © 1968 and renewed 1996 by Lotte Kohler, The Life
of the Mind © 1978, and Hannah Arendt/Karl Jaspers Correspondence
1926–1969 © 1985 by R. Piper GmbH & Co., KG, Munich, © Hannah
Arendt Literary Trust, © Hans Saner, English translation © 1992 are all
reprinted with the permission of Harcourt, Inc.
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