Calendar | Conference

Hannah Arendt on plurality, basic activities, and different forms of the we

Copenhagen, 4th March 2019

Official Website

Considering Arendt’s remarks in The Human Condition, different activities form different modes of “we,” as well as states in which a possible plural “we” is either absorbed, obstructed, or destroyed. This is most obvious in her famous analyses of the activity-modes of “labor” and “work” as well as in her critical assessments of the modern age, totalitarianism, and consumerist mass society. Accordingly, Arendt can be read as arguing for a specific development of a “we” that allows for a distinctly human and humane existence. This, of course, is a normatively loaded view, derived from her critical political perspective. On the other hand, it involves a strong thesis concerning the constitution, the reality, and the nature of a “we”: what actually is a “real we” and what is not, as well as a thesis as to how the “we” comes about. For Arendt, an authentic form of “we” does not dissolve the uniqueness of each “I”. Quite the contrary, it is the necessary medium of their distinct articulation and appearance.