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<p> This thesis explores and clarifies Hannah Arendt' s conception of evil and its impact on her political theory. While following Arendt' s reflections on evil over the course of her career-from The Origins of Totalitarianism through Eichmann in Jerusalem and The Life of the Mind-I make the argument that the common thread in her apparently divergent accounts is a certain understanding of evil's negative ontology. I then demonstrate that Arendt's alternative "ontology of appearances" results in an account of "conscience" that prevents action based on cognitive certainty, and thus, evil. In the third chapter, I suggest that Arendt' s political theory, with its opposition to biological "life," is a direct response to totalitarianism's emphasis on animality and its de-emphasis on appearance. I claim furthermore that the difficulties of Arendt' s political thought (particularly her vacuous account of freedom and its troubling connection to immortality) are best explained in relation to her account of evil. On this point I suggest critically that her notion of political freedom is paralyzing or preventative in a way that resonates with her account of conscience. Finally, I propose that in seeking to articulate the meaning of immortalizing action, Arendt might have instead elucidated the difference between a totalitarian perversion of human desire, where desires become cognitive prescriptions, and a Platonic notion of properly erotic desire, where action manifests a desiring orientation to an independent object, but in a decisively non-totalitarian fashion.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Hannah Arendt has been widely criticized for conceiving a theory of action and the public realm as devoid of any ethical restraints. This paper suggests that such criticism, as well as proponents of Arendt’s theory, fails to deal with her theory on its own terms and argue that her own notion of manifesting principles as the purpose of action, provides an account of political action that is ethically oriented towards our common world. Although such an account does not determine the rectitude of political judgement nor direct action towards ethically preconceived goals, it distinguishes political from practical reasoning as a distinct sphere of normativity that accords with the necessary conditions of Arendt’s theory of action. This paper suggests that the necessary conditions for a valid notion of action and thus a valid political normativity are (1): the performativity of action, (2): the autonomy of action and (3): action as the generative source of our common world. This paper concludes by suggesting that a proper critique or defence of Arendt’s theory of action should proceed by first engaging with the relationship between her notion of principles and the necessary conditions of a political normativity. Such an endeavor would refrain from shackling action according to the precepts of moral philosophy that either deny or downplay the importance of these conditions.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Se pueden encontrar dos formas heredadas de entender la obligación política, una premoderna que refiere a la relación de obligación entre una comunidad política y su gobierno y, otra moderna que relaciona al individuo directamente con el gobierno y suele entender que el vínculo resultante es de tipo moral. Arendt sostiene que el contexto contemporáneo requiere partir de supuestos post-revolucionarios que localizan la fuente de la legitimidad en el pueblo de ciudadanos entendidos como colegisladores. Sin embargo, Arendt no presenta de manera articulada e integral su posición sobre este tema en ninguna parte de su obra. Por otra parte, gran parte de los estudios sobre el tema han tratado la cuestión de la obligación política abstractamente, sin limitar las afirmaciones arendtianas al espacio público tratado en cada caso. Este trabajo mostrará que la noción de obligación política es reelaborada por Arendt recuperando la noción de pluralidad que es considerada como la característica esencial del espacio público político. Así, la comprensión de la obligación política adecuada al mundo contemporáneo referirá a las promesas entre los ciudadanos que permiten la estabilización del espacio público sin eliminarlo, en otras palabras, dejando el poder en manos del pueblo. Resumiendo, la hipótesis que guía nuestra investigación es que, para Hannah Arendt, bajo los supuestos políticos contemporáneos, la obligación política es, en primer término, una relación intersubjetiva en contextos plurales y, en segunda instancia, una relación entre el sujeto y la ley. Consecuentemente, deberemos explicitar las relaciones supuestas en la obra arendtiana entre las nociones de espacio público, sujeto político y ley con referencia a la obligación política. Para ello, tendremos que: 1- analizar el concepto de lo político en términos arendtianos como distinto de la naturaleza, de la theoria, del ámbito privado (o sea, de la labor y el trabajo) y de lo social, 2- determinar la función crítica específica de los distintos modelos políticos no contemporáneos trabajados por Arendt y, 3- caracterizar las nociones de espacio público, sujeto político y ley. Por todo lo dicho, esta tesis es un trabajo hermenéutico y exegético sobre el corpus arendtiano que presenta dos problemas principales: el de la delimitación entre el dato histórico y el teórico, y el de la sistematización de sus críticas a la historia del pensamiento sobre lo político. En el primer caso, no se tratará de escindir ambos niveles de análisis sino de explicitar las relaciones entre uno y otro ya que la propia Arendt no habla de la obligación política en abstracto, las distintas afirmaciones, a veces contradictorias, deben ser referidas al tipo de espacio público y subjetividad política en cuestión en cada obra. En el segundo caso, mostraremos las distintas caracterizaciones del vínculo político presentes en los modelos tratados e intentaremos articularlas con las experiencias correspondientes. O sea, buscaremos los principales modelos de espacio público, sujeto político y ley, tratados por Arendt y, a partir de ellos, veremos cómo el pensamiento se articula con la realidad generando conceptos o resemantizandolos. A su vez, podremos dar cuenta de algunos errores de la teoría sobre lo político al articularlos con las experiencias que los fundan en los espacios públicos en los que han sido generados. Esta tesis se divide en tres partes. La primera parte tematiza brevemente el concepto de lo político y presenta alguna de las críticas arendtianas a la tradición de pensamiento sobre lo político. La segunda parte desarrolla la referencia histórica principal de la obra arendtiana: las tendencias totalitarias de los estados contemporáneos y presenta dos críticas adicionales a la forma en que la tradición de pensamiento sobre lo político caracterizó esta noción. La tercera, presenta los distintos modelos de espacio público que utiliza Arendt para criticar a los estados contemporáneos, caracteriza sus nociones sobre lo político, la ciudadanía y los sujetos políticos y la ley, y los analiza. / There are two inherited ways to understand political obligation, a pre-modern one concerns the relationship of obligation between a political community and its government, the modern one relates the individual directly with the government and it‘s generally understood as a moral link. Arendt argues that the contemporary context requires post-revolutionary assumptions that locate the source of legitimacy in the people of citizens understood as colegislators. However, Arendt didn´t present in a comprehensive and articulated way her position on this issue in any part of her work. Moreover, most of the studies on the topic have addressed the question of political obligation abstractly, without limiting Arendt‘s claims to the public space sought in each case. This thesis will show that the notion of political obligation is reworked by Arendt recovering the notion of plurality which is considered as the essential feature of the political public sphere. Thus, the understanding of political obligation appropriate for contemporary world will refer to the promises among citizens that allow the stabilization of public space without deleting it, in other words, leaving power in the hands of the people. In short, the hypothesis guiding our research is that, for Arendt, under contemporary political assumptions, political obligation is, first, an intersubjective relationship in pluralistic contexts and, secondly, a relationship between the subject and the law. Accordingly, we make explicit the assumed relationships in Arendt's work among the notions of public space, political subject and law with reference to political obligation. To do this, we will: 1- analyze the concept of politics in Arendt's terms as distinct from nature, from theoria, from the private sphere (in other terms, from work and labor) and from the social, 2- determine the specific critical role of non contemporary political models worked by Arendt and, 3- characterize the notions of public space, political subject and law. It follows that this thesis is a hermeneutical and exegetical work on Arendt‘s corpus that presents two main problems: the boundary between the historical data and the theoretical, and the systematization of her criticism of the history of thought about politics. In the first case, we will not cleave both levels of analysis but explain the relationships between them, as Arendt herself does not speak of political obligation in the abstract, the various even contradictory statements must be referred to the type of public space and political subjectivity involved in each work. In the second case, we will show the different characterizations of the political loop present on treated models and link them with the corresponding experiences. In other words, we will look for the main models of public space, political subject and law, treated by Arendt and, we will see how thought is articulated with reality generating concepts or giving them new senses. In turn, we can account for some errors in the theory about politics, articulating them with the experiences that ground them in their own public spaces. This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part briefly thematize the concept of politics and presents some of Arendt's criticisms to tradition of thinking about the political. The second part develops the main historical reference to Arendt's work: the totalitarian tendencies of contemporary states and has two additional criticisms of how the tradition of thinking about politics characterized this notion. The third section presents the various models of public space used by Arendt to criticize contemporary states, it also characterize their notions of politics, citizenship and political subjects and the law, and analyze them.

The scholarly debate on Venezuela's democratic character has become tremendously polarized since the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998. This starkly divided debate has demonstrable impact on the policy realm, as well as the scholarly literature on democratic theory. This debate has run along ideological lines and has focused on differing conceptualizations of normative democracy, namely representative and participatory avenues of democratic engagement. Beyond providing an impactful analysis of this academic debate, this thesis works to supply an Arendtian defense of participation as a potential lense to assess Venezuela's democratic character. I will effectively argue that scholars should return to traditional conceptualizations of democratic theory, such as Arendt's, in order to provide richer and more substantial empirical assessments of democratic performance in light of the multitude of recent experimentations in democratic praxis that has swept the world. This project is relevant to both the scholarly community, as well as the policy realm. / Master of Arts

Parcourant de près l'itinéraire des œuvres de Hannah Arendt (1906- 1975), de sa dissertation doctorale sur Augustin aux dernières 'conférences de The life of the mind, notre thèse propose de retracer l'architecture réflexive de sa pensée politique. Trois axes fondamentaux guident cette recherche: l'unité et la cohérence philosophique de l'ensemble de son œuvre, sa critique de la tradition de pensée occidentale et la résurgence du problème du mal totalitaire. En choisissant le parti de Yamor mundi, qu'Arendt affiche dès sa thèse sur Augustin, nous proposons de suivre d'abord la généalogie de la question du mal totalitaire, ensuite les différents aspects et articulations de sa problématique. C'est sur cette problématique que repose l'articulation de sa phénoménologie politique bâtie sur le triptyque de la vita activa (travail, œuvre, action). Une fois cette étape nécessaire franchie, nous proposons de dégager l'exigence philosophique qu'Arendt pose à l'égard des activités de l'esprit afin de répondre à la problématique du mal politique contemporain.

Women in visual media are generally underrepresented and stereotypically portrayed.  It is a very undifferentiated image, that few women can actually identify with. Norm-breaking characters can have an essential part and a positive influence on humans identity formation, research shows. The purpose of this study is to examine eight women’s stories about how television shows had an impact on their identity formation, primarily focusing on Hannah from the very popular tv-series Girls. Hannah has been described as a plain and slightly overweight heroine, not suited for modern television. The study is built on a qualitative science-method through semi-structured interviews, with subjective stories as focal point. The selection of interviewees identify themselves as women and have seen Girls. The study shows that Hannah works as a role model by inspiring the interviewees to acknowledge and accept their self-view, in addition to increasing their bravery and place amongst other people. Thenceforth, they felt that there was a small representation of strong female characters on modern television and saw a necessity for Hannah in popular culture.

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This paper explores the major historical interpretations of Hannah Arendt and analyzes her philosophy of history. Chapter One includes an introduction and a brief survey of the life of Hannah Arendt. Chapters Two and Three examine The Origins of Totalitarianism. The discussion concludes that Arendt's loose use of terms and some of her evidence can be called into question. Nevertheless, her work contains original insights about modern European political history. Chapter Four, a discussion of Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, emphasizes her portrait of Adolph Eichmann as a shallow, Nazi bureaucrat. Although the work is flawed with inaccuracies, her portrait of Eichmann as a prototypical bureaucratic killer is thought provoking. Chapter Five, an analysis of Arendt's philosophy of history, concludes that Arendt understood the pitfalls of theories of historical causality.