Abstract

ZAPATA, Guillermo. Elements from a Politics Paideia in Hannah Arendt. Pap.polit. [online]. 2010, vol.15, n.2, pp.367-410. ISSN 0122-4409.

With this text we want to point out the contribution to modern western politics, or to the spirit of the polis, from Hannah Arendt, whose posture is a radical and participative democracy. Arendt proposes that each citizen be formed in the spirit of citizenship, implementing a political action from the logic of freedom. To be formed in this dynamic of freedom is to be conscientious of the difference between logic of necessity of the homo faber responsible for the labor, work, and action, better understood as praxis, and the logic of free-dom, which is the foundation of politics. To enter into the spirit of polis presupposes being formed in the action within the framework of vita activa where the citizens, who are the creators of public space, emerge to the new beginning of a free, representative and democratic humanity in which people have a sense for forgiveness and promise. The homo faber transforms him or herself into homo civilis when he or she cultivates the spirit of plurality in citizenship, and decides to become an active and responsible subject; a subject who is responsible of his or her own birth for the polis; this is realized out of the grandness of his actions. This transformation happens in what Arendt calls vita activa, and it makes sense in the realm of action. To be formed in this radical, democratic action is una paideia politica, which means, to qualify a political praxis marked by the greatness of a plural, democratic, and free spirit.

Keywords : Democracy; Paideia; Politics; Citizenship; Public Space; Forgiveness; Promise.

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