TY - JOUR

T1 - Ethics and human relationality: between Arendt's accounts of morality.

AU - Williams, Garrath

PY - 2007/5

Y1 - 2007/5

N2 - "Zoon politikon: as if there were something political in the person which belongs to h/er essence. But this is exactly wrong: the human being is apolitical. Politics originates in-between human beings, that is precisely outside the individual. Therefore there is no strictly political substance. Politics originates in-between and establishes itself in terms of relations." - Hannah Arendt This paper considers a short quotation from near the beginnings of Arendt's Denktagebuch, dated to August 1950. This epigrammatic formulation presages Arendt's whole political theory, by situating the political outside of the individual, in-between a plurality of human beings. My concern, however, is not with politics as such. Instead, I ask: cannot what Arendt says of politics be said with equal truth of morality? To make some attempt upon this vast question, I examine Arendt's own more tentative explorations of the moral sphere, including the importance she attaches to judgment - in particular, our judgment of the company we might keep and the exemplars we should follow.

AB - "Zoon politikon: as if there were something political in the person which belongs to h/er essence. But this is exactly wrong: the human being is apolitical. Politics originates in-between human beings, that is precisely outside the individual. Therefore there is no strictly political substance. Politics originates in-between and establishes itself in terms of relations." - Hannah Arendt This paper considers a short quotation from near the beginnings of Arendt's Denktagebuch, dated to August 1950. This epigrammatic formulation presages Arendt's whole political theory, by situating the political outside of the individual, in-between a plurality of human beings. My concern, however, is not with politics as such. Instead, I ask: cannot what Arendt says of politics be said with equal truth of morality? To make some attempt upon this vast question, I examine Arendt's own more tentative explorations of the moral sphere, including the importance she attaches to judgment - in particular, our judgment of the company we might keep and the exemplars we should follow.

KW - Hannah Arendt

KW - responsibility

KW - morality

KW - conscience

KW - judgment

M3 - Journal article

VL - 2007

JO - HannahArendt.net - Journal for Political Thinking

JF - HannahArendt.net - Journal for Political Thinking

IS - 3

ER -