JBSP Online: Paul Gyllenhammer on ‘Arendt’s Way Beyond Hobbes’

journal update

Now online a new article for the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology by Paul Gyllenhammer (St. John’s University).

Paul Gyllenhammer – “Towards a Common World: Arendt’s Way Beyond Hobbes”
JBSP (Received 01 Dec 2023, Accepted 20 Aug 2024, Published online: 27 Aug 2024).

Abstract: Hobbes’s account of sovereign power can be seen as an impetus to Arendt’s passion for authentic political life. From the Human Condition, we will see how the distinction between labor, work, and action can be read as a response to Hobbes’s accounts of both human nature and the necessity for harsh restrictions on citizens in society. In particular, the need for compelled silence, for Hobbes, appears as a dialectical counterpoint to the role of speech in the space of appearances for Arendt. Hobbes also has a hand in drawing Arendt to her final interest in Kant’s Critique of Judgment. Here, Arendt addresses the problem of imperialism in Hobbes’s account of global power. She sees a way beyond imperialism through the cosmopolitan bond we share around the aesthetic domain. Aesthetic cosmopolitanism is a unique way into Arendt’s fight against tyranny.

Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2024.2396634

Paul Gyllenhammer, St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA

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