Hannah Arendt and the Challenge of Modernity: A Phenomenology of Human Rights

234 Pages·2008·1.38 MB·English

by  Serena Parekh

Studies in Philosophy
Edited by
Robert Bernasconi
University of Memphis
A Routledge Series
Studies in Philosophy
Robert Bernasconi, General Editor
Mathematics in Kant’s Diderot and the Metamorphosis
Critical Philosophy of Species
Reflections on Mathematical Practice Mary Efrosini Gregory
Lisa Shabel
The Rights of Woman as Chimera
Referential Opacity and Modal Logic The Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft
Dagfinn Føllesdal Natalie Fuehrer Taylor
Emmanuel Levinas The German “Mittleweg”
Ethics, Justice, and the Human beyond Being Garden Theory and Philosophy in the
Elisabeth Louise Thomas Time of Kant
Michael G. Lee
The Constitution of Consciousness
A Study in Analytic Phenomenology The Immanent Word
Wolfgang Huemer The Turn to Language in German Philosophy,
1759–1801
Dialectics of the Body
Katie Terezakis
Corporeality in the Philosophy of T.W. Adorno
Lisa Yun Lee Discourse, Desire, and Fantasy in
Jurgen Habermas’ Critical Theory
Art as Abstract Machine
Kenneth G. MacKendrick
Ontology and Aesthetics in Deleuze
and Guattari Volition, Rhetoric, and Emotion in
Stephen Zepke the Work of Pascal
Thomas Parker
The German Gt
Hermeneutics and Discipline in the German Heidegger on East-West Dialogue
Reception of Indian Thought, 1778–1831 Anticipating the Event
Bradley L. Herling Lin Ma
Hegel’s Critique of Essence Gramsci and Trotsky in the Shadow
A Reading of the Wesenslogik of Stalinism
Franco Cirulli The Political Theory and Practice of Opposition
Emanuele Saccarelli
Time, Space and Ethics in the
Philosophy of Watsuji Tetsur, Kant, Foucault, and Forms of Experience
Kuki Shz, and Martin Heidegger Marc Djaballah
Graham Mayeda
Hannah Arendt and the Challenge
Wittgenstein’s Novels of Modernity
Martin Klebes A Phenomenology of Human Rights
Serena Parekh
Language and History in Theodor W.
Adorno’s Notes to Literature
Ulrich Plass
Hannah Arendt and the
Challenge of Modernity
A Phenomenology of Human Rights
Serena Parekh
New York London
First published 2008
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2008 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including pho-
tocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parekh, Serena, 1974-
Hannah Arendt and the challenge of modernity : a phenomenology of human rights / by
Serena Parekh.
p. cm. — (Studies in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-415-96108-0 (hbk)
ISBN-10: 0-415-96108-4 (hbk)
1. Arendt, Hannah, 1906–1975—Political and social views. 2. Human rights. I. Title.
JC251.A74P35 2008
323.01—dc22 2007044912
ISBN 0-203-92781-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-96108-4 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-92781-8 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-96108-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-92781-6 (ebk)
To Edward McGushin
All that which is mysteriously given us by birth and which includes the
shape of our bodies and the talents of our minds, can be adequately dealt
with only by the unpredictable hazards of friendship and sympathy, or
by the great and incalculable grace of love, which says with Augustine,
“Volo ut sis (I want you to be),” without being able to give any particu-
lar reason for such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation.
Origins of Totalitarianism 301

Contents
Abbreviations ix
Permissions xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction
The Groundlessness of Modernity 1
Chapter One
The Paradox of Human Rights 11
Chapter Two
Human Dignity and the Ethos of Modernity 42
Chapter Three
The Common World 67
Chapter Four
Two Realms of Existence 93
Chapter Five
The Foundations of Human Rights 121
Chapter Six
Conscience, Morality, and Judgment 150
Concluding Remarks 164
vii
viii Contents
Notes 173
Bibliography 211
Index 217
Abbreviations
BPF Between Past and Future
BT The Burden of Our Time (the first British edition of
The Origins of Totalitarianism)
CR Crisis of the Republic
EU Essays in Understanding
HC The Human Condition
JP The Jew as Pariah
LKPP Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy
LMT Life of the Mind—Thinking
LMW Life of the Mind—Willing
MDT Men in Dark Times
OR On Revolution
OT The Origins of Totalitarianism
PP “Philosophy and Politics”
PRPI “Public Rights and Private Interests”
QP Qu’est-ce que la politique?
RJ Responsibility and Judgment
ix