That there be a beginning”: Arendt and Natality

Year 2023, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 124 - 135, 27.01.2023

Gaye İlhan Demiryol

https://doi.org/10.32955/neuissar202321681

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Hannah Arendt’s concept of natality is customarily read as a response to Heidegger’s death-oriented philosophy, a vestige of Arendt’s earlier occupation with Augustine, or a remnant of Arendt’s brush with Jewish messianism by way of Walter Benjamin. This essay argues that the novelty of Arendt’s concept of natality cannot simply be reduced to Heidegger’s or any other philosophical influence. The essay urges the reader to take seriously the historical and political context within which Arendt deploys natality, i.e., the devastating experience of totalitarianism. For Arendt, natality is intertwined with the power to begin and initiate new in the world. The experience of political isolation, superfluousness, and loss of freedom under totalitarian regimes suggest to Arendt the exigency of theorizing a response. Arendt, therefore, formulates natality as a safeguard. Totalitarianism as a regime of oppression seeks to erase action and plurality, and Arendt as a response cements the possibility of human freedom in the irreducible human condition of natality.

Keywords

Hannah Arendt, Natality, Totalitarianism, Action, Freedom

Thanks

I would like to thank the participants of the SWIP-TR 2021 Conference, “Philosophies of Life and Death,” for their insightful comments, as well as two anonymous reviewers.

“BAŞLANGIÇ OLSUN DİYE”: ARENDT VE DOĞUMLULUK

Abstract

Hannah Arendt'in doğumluluk kavramı, geleneksel olarak Arendt’in Heidegger, Augustine, Benjamin gibi çeşitli düşünürlerle felsefi etkileşiminin sonucunda oluşmuş bir yanıt olarak okunur. Bu makale, Arendt'ın doğumluluk kavramının yeniliğini ve orjinalliğini vurgularken, kavramın basitçe bu felsefi etkilere karşı geliştirilmiş bir yanıta indirgenemeyeceğini savunuyor. Bunun yerine makalede yirminci yüzyılın siyasi deneyimlerinden esinlenen alternatif bir anlayış sunuluyor ve okuyucu Arendt'in doğumsallık deneyimini yerleştirdiği kavramsal çerçeveyi yani totalitarizmin yıkıcı tecrübesini ciddiye almaya teşvik ediliyor. Arendt'e göre doğumluluk başlama ve yeniyi başlatma gücüyle iç içedir. Totaliter rejimler altında yaşanan siyasi izolasyon ve özgürlüğün kaybedilmesi deneyimleri Arendt'e bir karşı teori oluşturmanın gerekliliğini düşündürür. Bir baskı rejimi olarak totaliterlik, eylemi ve çoğulluğu ortadan kaldırmaya çalışırken Arendt de yanıt olarak doğumluluk kavramını geliştirir.

Keywords

Hannah Arendt, Natality, Totalitarianism, Action, Freedom

References

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