This thesis intends to demonstrate the radical potential of rights. I argue that rights are capable, on the one hand, of challenging capitalist social relations and the liberal legal order which sustains those relations, and, on the other hand, of constituting a new political system. I argue that without reconceptualising rights in this manner, we are unable to comprehend certain social movements which employ the language of rights for challenging the existing systems and for articulating transformative visions of a new world. This thesis suggests that we need to rethink rights as political alliances and agreements and rights-claims as political proposals between co-citizens. Here, the content of rights is formulated through a political action of the rights-holders themselves, as opposed to being derived from the pre-political sphere. Furthermore, I argue that our understanding of the scope of these political proposals and, hence, our understanding of the nature of the new order that rights can potentially constitute, depends on the way we conceptualise the conflictual dimension of rights-claims. It is the notion of a rights-claim as a challenge to the constituted order, as opposed to a petition to be included within that order, which captures how rights inaugurate a radical discursive space where potentially transformative political proposals regarding the matters of collective life can be made. Throughout this thesis I refer to a transnational movement of peasants, La Via Campesina, which fights for a new socio-political arrangement where ‘feeding the world’ is the end in itself rather than a dictate of the capitalist market. Crucially, this movement makes extensive use of the language of rights and of ‘the right to food’ in particular. I argue that it is only the radical theory of social rights constructed in this thesis that allows us to analyse the transformative core of the movements like this one.

O presente trabalho tem por objeto uma reflexão sobre a importância da educação e da vida pública na preservação e no cuidado com o mundo humano e comum. Iniciando com algumas questões que tangenciam diálogos de compreensão de nosso presente, realizamos uma abordagem sobre o legado deixado pelos antigos sobre o cosmos humano e a noção de mundo comum em Hannah Arendt, a partir do modelo da polis grega e da fundação romana. Em seguida, delineamos alguns aspectos da moderna negação do mundo e da noção de mundo deserto que nela se instaura e se expande especialmente com a ascensão do totalitarismo na Europa do século XX. No Epílogo da obra A Promessa da Política, Arendt apresenta um texto marcado pela metáfora do deserto, onde o que predomina é o nada e o ninguém, formulando alguns questionamentos acerca da moderna expansão da ausência de mundo que nos levam necessariamente para outras obras da autora, tais como A Condição Humana, Entre o Passado e o Futuro, Responsabilidade e Julgamento e As Origens do Totalitarismo. Esboçando alguns traços do que pode representar educar em um mundo deserto, buscamos, finalmente, realçar a importância de se realizar uma reflexão sobre o sentido da educação como formação para o viver comum. Como observa Arendt na obra Entre o Passado e o Futuro - um mundo comum - no qual decidimos, através da educação, se o amamos o bastante para salvá-lo da ruína, assumindo com isso a responsabilidade por ele. Educar em um mundo deserto pode representar uma importante contribuição no sentido de uma possível transformação da negação do mundo, metaforicamente delineada por Arendt como o mundo deserto, numa afirmação do mundo humano / Lo scopo di questo lavoro è una riflessione sulla importanza della formazione e della vita pubblica per la conservazione e la cura del mondo umano e comune. A partire da alcune questioni che dialoghi tangenti della nostra comprensione di questo, abbiamo condotto un imbarco sulla eredità lasciata dagli antichi sul cosmo e il mondo umano, del senso comune in Hannah Arendt, dal modello della polis greca e le fondazioni romane. Poi abbiamo delineare alcuni aspetti della moderna negazione del mondo e della nozione di mondo deserto che sia stabilito e si espande in particolare con l\'aumento del totalitarismo del XX secolo in Europa. Nel Epilogo del libro La Promessa della Política, Arendt presenta un testo marcato dalla metafora del deserto, in cui ciò che prevale è niente e nessuno, formulando alcune domande circa l\'espansione moderna della mancanza di mondo che ci portano necessariamente ad altre opere dell\'autore, come La condizione umana, Tra passato e futuro, Responsabilità e giudizio e Le origini del totalitarismo. Delineare alcuni dei tratti che possono rappresentare educare in un mondo deserto, cerchiamo in definitiva sottolineare l\'importanza di condurre una riflessione sul significato dell\'istruzione e della formazione per vivere insieme. Come osserva Arendt nel libro Tra passato e futuro - un mondo comune - in cui abbiamo deciso, attraverso l\'educazione, se amiamo abbastanza da salvarlo dalla rovina, portando con sé la responsabilità per questo. Educare in un mondo deserto, può rappresentare un importante contributo per una possibile trasformazione della negazione del mondo, metaforicamente descritto dalla Arendt come il mondo del deserto, l\'affermazione del mondo umano.

In the broadest sense, the three essays that form this dissertation address certain normative features in John Locke’s philosophy. “On Revolution: Arendt, Locke, and Republican Revisionism” deals with Hannah Arendt’s early republican revisionism that removes Locke’s influence from the American revolutionary period. Her (mistaken) belief is that Locke’s political philosophy encourages social disengagement and political apathy. In “One Body of People: Locke on Amerindians, Protestant Evangelism, and the Colonization of North America” I take seriously Locke’s religious devotion and reassess his colonial philosophy through an “evangelical” lens. It turns out his colonial thought was not motivated by “punishment” but by a perceived collective good. In “Friends in the State of Nature: John Locke and the Formation of Security Communities,” I explore the routinely overlooked fact that Locke characterizes humans as highly sociable and prone to friendship. To be sure, friendship and trust not only exist in the state of nature, they are what precipitate the contractual movement into civil society. This is particularly relevant given the fact that the realist tradition within International Relations almost reflexively characterizes the relationship between states as one of ruthless self ­interest. The way Locke speaks about the formation of political communities is highly reminiscent of “security communities,” a term popularized by Karl Deustch in the late 1950s, which describes groups of people who have integrated to such an extent that conflict can be managed in nonviolent ways. Locke characterizes the international community both in terms of moral communities (where different regions of the world share different values), and also in terms of economic communities of varying degrees of interdependence.

Diss.--Freiburg--Univ., 2005. / Bibliogr. p. 498-503.

Thesis (doctoral) - Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-299).

This thesis considers the limitations of redress measures for injustices against Indigenous peoples in Canada and seeks to provide an alternative account of reconciliation that aims towards addressing these limitations. Current reconciliation and treaty processes designed to address Indigenous claims have resulted in a disconnect between material and symbolic or affective harms and are insufficiently reciprocal and receptive to the multiplicity of conflicting accounts of history to meaningfully effect a transformation of Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations. Furthermore, current processes aim towards closure with respect to past injustices instead of establishing lasting political relationships through grappling with diverse perspectives on those injustices. This thesis engages with these challenges by exploring Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations in Canada through the lens of Hannah Arendt’s relational, non-instrumental account of politics and recent literature on agonistic reconciliation in order to propose an alternative account of living in reconciliation through treaty relations. / Graduate

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Filosofía.

Cette étude examine les rapports politiques entre les communautés métisses de la vallée de la rivière Rouge et le gouvernement colonial que la Compagnie de la baie d’Hudson (CBH) a implanté dans la colonie de la rivière Rouge. L’argument principal de cette étude avance que les dirigeants de la CBH ont été obligés de nouer des alliances avec les principaux leaders métis de la région pour accorder de la légitimité aux institutions politiques et juridiques de la colonie. Chaque fois que les gouvernants de la colonie ont tenté d’imposer leur autorité sur les communautés métisses sans leur consentement, ces dernières se mobilisent au sein de leurs propres formes d’organisation politique pour réaffirmer leur indépendance et rétablir une forme d’équilibre dans leurs rapports politiques. Pour démontrer cet argument, nous combinons l’approche de l’analyse des réseaux aux concepts arendtiens de la grammaire de l’action et de la syntaxe de la puissance. L’analyse des réseaux nous permet de cartographier les rapports politiques entre les leaders métis et le gouvernement de la CBH. Les réseaux présentés dans cette étude illustrent le fait que les Métis ont d’abord effectivement résisté à l’implantation d’un gouvernement colonial à la rivière Rouge et ensuite réussi à imposer leur présence au sein des institutions politiques et juridiques de la CBH. Le vocabulaire conceptuel inspiré de la pensée politique d’Arendt nous permet de réfléchir à la formation et à l’organisation du pouvoir. La grammaire de l’action, d’une part, désigne les pratiques par lesquelles les acteurs créent des espaces publics et génèrent de la puissance par le fait même qu’ils agissent ensemble. La syntaxe de la puissance, d’autre part, désigne les pratiques par lesquelles les acteurs structurent, articulent et coordonnent les espaces publics en un corps politique cohérent pour leur conférer de la permanence et empêcher que la puissance ne se dissipe lorsque les participants se dispersent. Ces deux concepts nous permettent d’analyser le processus de formation et d’organisation du pouvoir qui est illustré dans les réseaux. La contribution principale de cette étude consiste à renverser le narratif dominant de l’historiographie canadienne qui insiste que les Métis étaient soumis au gouvernement colonial de la CBH en démontrant au contraire que ce sont les Métis qui ont fini par contrôler le gouvernement de la CBH.

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In this work I examine the role of judgment in the writings of Hannah Arendt. I argue that consideration of this concept helps to shed light on her important contribution to political philosophy, and in particular on the often overlooked radical aspects of her work. Judgment lies at the heart of a cluster of characteristically ‘Arendtian’ themes: those of natality, plurality, narrative and the relation between political action, thought and disclosure, as well as her notions of political public space and its relation to past and future. I argue that in adapting Kant’s conception of judgment as presented in his Critique of Judgment, Arendt also inherits a problematic pair of ideas associated with it: ‘Taste’ and sensus communis. These concepts, I suggest, raise questions of authority, exclusion and participation that were already politically coded in Kant. Examining the part they came to play in Arendt’s thought helps us to see a significant problematic for a political thought that would aspire to be critical and radical. Specifically, it exposes two closely interlinked questions: that of the limits of the political (its character and distinctiveness) and that of the political subjects themselves (the notion of proper and improper political subjects). I conclude that an engagement with the role of reflective judgment in Arendt is an illuminating and important way to understand both the radical current in Arendt’s thought and the challenge faced by any radical political thought at the opening of the twenty-first century.