Abstract

ZAPATA, S.J, Guillermo. LA CONDICIÓN POLÍTICA EN HANNAH ARENDT. Pap.polit. [online]. 2006, vol.11, n.2, pp.505-524. ISSN 0122-4409.

The purpose of this essay is to reflect on Hannah Arendt's (1906-1975) political contribution, taking political anthropology as the point of departure of her thought. The political unveils the core of human existence. The fragility of human existence is particularly evident at birth, which not only founds humanity from a new beginning but is also a free response to the very fact of being born. Every political action is a free one which results from the mutual relationship between speech and action. On the stage of being in common or public forum, word and action define power as the proper trait of the political, as being able to act in a concerted and plural way. The plural and concerted action is a factual truth against every type of violence that crushes plurality. Pluralism is the law of the world and develops itself as political condition. All types of violence make humanity pointless because they weaken not only freedom but also the unsuspected capability of human action. Totalitarianisms have sunk humanity under dark times and have denied the most reliable human trait which, according to Arendt, is the political condition. This political condition demands the kingdom of action where everybody performs his or her uniqueness and difference. The duty of every citizen is indeed both to recover his or her true political condition withdrawn from all sorts of violence, developing the radical democracy that underlies mankind.

Keywords : action; democracy; politics; plurality; totalitarism.

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