Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
1975
Keywords
Arendt, Hannah
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
James P. Young
Second Advisor
Edwin Rutkowski
Third Advisor
Leon J. Goldstein
Series
Social Sciences
Abstract
The present state of democratic theory is one of confusion and change. Pluralism remains a virtual orthodoxy among political scientists and political theorists, but there is an increasing interest in participatory theories that are critical of pluralism as an elitist theory of democracy. This critique of pluralism is combined with a new concern for man the citizen and a belief that under present conditions and according to orthodox theories the legitimate activity of citizenship is attenuated to the point of nonexistence. This dissertation grows out of just such a concern for citizenship and out of a conviction that elitist democratic theory is descriptively inadequate and normatively irrelevant both to our present situation and, more importantly, to our future. While I find much to agree with in the new participatory theories, they are at this point sketchy and fragmentary. It was against the background of this debate over democratic theory that I first encountered the work of Hannah Arendt, and I have come to the conclusion that her work introduces into the debate a profoundly original and systematic conception of politics, a new way of seeing the political world, which is richly suggestive of present and future possibilities. It is on these possibilities and on this conception of politics that I will focus, but the theoretical context of the debate over democracy must be spelled out first.
...
Each of the above sources has been helpful as I have struggled to find my way through the political thought of Hannah Arendt. At some point during that struggle I became convinced that no one had provided an adequate account of her concept of action and that the attempt would be well worth the effort because of the theoretical interest of the concept. Having long been concerned about the deplorable state of man as citizen in this country and thus interested in the many recent efforts to construct a more meaningful theory of citizenship, I became convinced that much could be learned by examining Arendt’s concept of action as an alternative citizenship category. Throughout, this dissertation is shaped by the desire to stimulate a dialogue between Arendt's original contributions to a theory of politics and the efforts of many others to develop an alternative to the liberal theory of citizenship in its contemporary American dress.
Chapter I serves as a general introduction to the thought of Hannah Arendt. Chapters II - IV are devoted to a detailed analysis of the concept of action in an attempt to develop an understanding of Arendt’s theory of action which makes it possible to think oneself inside, so to speak, the political world defined by that concept. In Chapter II this analysis is carried on from the perspective of the individual actor and in Chapter III from the perspective of the political association. Chapter IV broadens the analysis by attending to the various mental faculties Arendt associates with action and by explicating action as the unity of thinking and doing. Chapter V provides a complementary perspective on action by summarizing Arendt’s historical account of action and relating that account to the preceding analysis. Chapter VI is essentially a set of concluding remarks on the possible contribution of Arendt’s vision of the political to the search for a new theory of democratic citizenship.
Recommended Citation
Knauer, James T., "Hannah Arendt and the reassertion of the political: toward a new democratic theory" (1975). Graduate Dissertations and Theses. 434.
https://orb.binghamton.edu/dissertation_and_theses/434
