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Within the text of The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt circumscribes the concept of natality in ways that tend to conflate its biological, historical, institutional and phenomenological dimensions. This dissertation seeks to clarify this concept and the conceptual territory that surrounds it. Specifically, it is argued that Arendt’s construction of the concept of natality is inherently dual. Each person is delivered into a worldly environment through her primary, biological birth. As soon as she is born, she begins to be conditioned to the accepted normative standards of her community. A gap necessarily exists, however, between the person she is socio-culturally conditioned to be, and who she is explicitly, uniquely and authentically. When deeds and words are employed in service of revealing someone’s individual identity or essence, and thereby showing her to be more than simply a mirror of her cultural conditioning, it heralds a second birth, one which is existential instead of biological. According to Arendt, this existential natality must take place in the presence of other existential agents, and also may be witnessed by a spectator who then seeks to express the significance of what has occurred to those removed from the original event either by space and/or time. This expression takes the form of artifactual objects, including works of art, architectural monuments and various forms of narratives. Arendt’s theory concerning the creation of these objects contains two major problems that are critically addressed within this project. The first problem concerns the spectator’s capacity for making judgments. Works written after The Human Condition are shown to demonstrate Arendt’s attempts to address this issue. The second problem concerns the way in which Arendt portrays the issue of embodiment. This issue must be reconciled both by appealing to work from within her canon, as well as through the introduction of recent scholarship from the field of social cognition. The project concludes with the presentation of a concrete, historical example intended to be illustrative of the preceding theoretical material.

Thesis advisor: Rodrigo Chacon / Thesis advisor: Susan Shell / In this thesis, I will explore the natural tension that exists between philosophy and politics; theory and practice, and thought and action, especially as manifest in contemporary society. In order to investigate this tension, I will use a lens presented by Hannah Arendt and her writings, in particular the Human Condition and the Jewish Writings . I will use these works to illustrate Arendt's own conflict between the role of politics and philosophy in human affairs as experienced in her transition from a political journalist to a political theorist. I will argue that a comparison of these works shows Arendt's struggle with the tension between philosophy and politics; thought and action, and theory and practice. A comparison of these works also illustrates Arendt's paradoxical conclusion of the Human Condition: that in times of unprecedented crisis, although theory and philosophy are precisely what are necessary to prevent further destruction and tragedy, they unfortunately become superfluous, and then immediate (even if groundless) action becomes necessarily the only human capacity that can "save" the world. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Orientador: Adolfo Ramos Lamar. / Dissertação (Mestrado em Educação) - Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Blumenau.

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.

Dans ce mémoire, nous voulons étudier la position du philosophe dans le monde commun chez Hannah Arendt. La vie contemplative qui le caractérise le place-t-il dans une position qui le détacherait du monde commun et qui pourrait légitimer une certaine supériorité? Nous commencerons par introduire le concept central de monde commun en rapport avec la menace totalitaire. En effet, le monde est un espace où les citoyens peuvent partager, échanger, communiquer en toute égalité de droits. C'est cet espace qui permet de poser des actions et donc d'être libres. Ensuite, dans un deuxième chapitre, nous étudierons la vision que Arendt a de la philosophie traditionnelle et plus particulièrement de l'histoire de la supériorité de la vie contemplative. Elle remarque deux principaux dangers à cette position soit le fait que cela rend le penseur inactif et que cela le conduit à une sorte de solipsisme ou isolement du monde. Puis, après avoir montré ce que notre auteure rejetait, c'est-à-dire la position de supériorité du philosophe professionnel, nous tenterons, dans un troisième et dernier chapitre de montrer ce que pourrait être la position «acceptable» du philosophe dans le monde commun. Pour ce faire, nous nous rapporterons aux études que Arendt avait faites de la pensée elle-même, contenues principalement dans les deux premiers tomes de La vie de l'esprit et dans les cours sur la philosophie politique de Kant qu'elle avait donnés et qui sont publiés à la fin de ce même ouvrage. Car pour étudier ce que pourrait être la position du philosophe, il faut voir ce qui se passe quand on pense et comment cela peut faire partie des activités au sein du monde commun. C'est principalement chez Kant que Arendt trouvera ce dont elle a besoin pour faire de la pensée -et donc des penseurs -un élément essentiel de la vie démocratique. Nous verrons qu'elle reprenait principalement la faculté d'imagination, la distinction entre Savoir et Raison et l'importance de la faculté de juger. Puis, nous terminerons en montrant comment Socrate pourrait devenir, dans cette mesure, un modèle de penseur-citoyen, d'un philosophe qui n'est pas hors du monde, mais qui au contraire s'y maintient et s'en nourrit. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Philosophie, Hannah Arendt, Naissance, Monde commun.