College 17 mei Hannah Arendt

• Filosofie
• WO
• Studiejaar 1

17 may 2021

Hannah Arendt

' Religion and  Politics' 

1953

Religion and Politics' 

Case study: labeling new political ideologies as secular / political religion.

Result: this idea puts religion under the political sphere of influence

Position Arendt:

Communism is not the same as religion because of its content.

The historical and social sciences falsely approach communism as a religion.

Origin

1. Karl Marx- calls all religion an ideology. Thereafter

the approach is also applied the other way around.

2. Religious and secularists have come to resemble each other, because after the Enlightenment they both start from doubt instead of wonder. 

People longed for certainty and “men forgot that human freedom of thought and action is possible under conditions of insecure and limited knowledge” (blz. 370).

The historical approach

... according to Arendt does not understand the meaning of secularism.

 

1. Secularization in the political sense of the word means that religion has no public authority.  So where does authority for our values come from? It seems that with the decline of religion, authority is also lost, but the two are not necessarily linked. 

2. The concept of "freedom" does not only have a religious origin. Christianity brought people freedom outside of public life, while we value freedom in the public domain.

3. Communism itself avoids comparison with a religion. They attack all freedoms.

The social approach

uses the term incorrectly, according to Arendt, because they do not look at the content of a belief or ideology, but only at its function.

Karl Marx started this.

Marx saw man as a "doer", a homo faber, who can make history himself. Marx connects (political) action with violence.

The functionalizing (subordinating) of men

Concepts or theories are universalized to explain different phenomena. The concept of "political religion" is a new term to encompass various phenomena, she says.

However, the danger is that history is shaped by a certain social phenomenon.

Relationship religion and politics

Which political element in Christianity was used for political power?:  hell.

Fear of hell through secularization is absent.

Deliberation and violence are the only political means left.

Current danger: the same fanaticism in one's own ideology

 

Biography Hannah Arendt

Born 1906 in Germany, fled to the US

Studied theology and philosophy

Colleges of Heidegger, Husserl and Jaspers

Famous works: Vita Activa, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Origins of Totalitarism 

Activities of men (Vita activa)

Animal laborans- Labor- necessary

Homo faber- Work- men is master

Act- men is creator

Relationship between act and public

Creating the world means contributing to that which transcends us as human beings.

In the public domain, people transcend their own private interests.

For Arendt, action is the unique gift of the people.

Because people come into the world as newbies and are novices, they can start something new.

Being free coincides with this.

The result of act

The acting human being reveals herself on the world stage. Insecurity comes along with this, because the effects of the reveal is uncertain; reactions, consequences, etc. 

Every person is unique and has something new to bring into the world. By speaking this plurality becomes visible and it gives it space.

Arendt doesn't see the public just as an expression of the private opinions. (exprissive freedom). In that case speaking is no moren than repeating personal opinions, while participating in public means to create something new.

Application: Dialogue in education

Dialogue in education is a much discussed topic these days. 

Think of news items about homoseksual teachers on reformed schools, the tensions all around the portraying of the prophet Mohammed, etc. 

These issues are not only discussed in schools and among teachers and parents, but also by the government. 

Application: Dialogue in education

Education: safe space between private and public area

Task: to show the pupils what the world's like and prepare them to their task in it: to renew it.

This happens in the community of the class/school. You need each other to show yourself and to learn. In that way you create something new.

Dialogue

What does this notion of freedom in the classroom asks of the teacher and the pupil?

What does this notion of freedom asks from society (public) and from the families (private)?