Arendt & Taylor Flashcards
Where does Arendt’s inspiration come from for political philosophy?
Greek, Athenian and her main inspiration is Aristotle
What is it Arendt and Taylor are trying to respond to? What is the challenge?
They have a response the the challenge that Sartre leaves us with, the challenge of meaning
What is man/human to Arendt (from Aristotle)?
-Aristotle believed that human is a political animal that the best part of what it is to be human, that which distinguishes the human from the animal; thinking, reasoning, and political
-Man is a political animal because it is concerned with other humans and how they can live together in the best way possible; engage in reasoning discussion, argument with other humans, discussing what is good, what is just, what is the best system
In Arendt’s response to Sartre’s challenge, what is the first level of human existence?
(4pts)
Labor:
-All life an its meaning can be reduced to making a salary and enough to live by to and in order to consume
-Means simply working for sustenance, working for money to live, to get by
-Human activity is reduced to being a wage slave
-I must consume to make my life meaningful
In Arendt’s response to Sartre’s challenge, what is the second level of human existence?
(2pts)
Work:
-Some productive activity; that activity involves building things that last and have value in terms of their usefulness
-What is produced must always be calculated in terms of its efficiently, usefulness and productiveness goes beyond the existence of the people who produce them
In Arendt’s response to Sartre’s challenge, what is the third level of human existence? What does she say about labor and work affecting this level?
(3pts)
Action:
-Is the most human level of existence –> is a level of political activity
-Political activity: participation in the political life of the political word in which we live in, it means being a citizen, participating, speaking out
-However, in her opinion in these days, the world of labor and work has completely dominated the world of action, it has become subservient of making as much money as possible (labor) and utility (work), SHE BELIEVES WE ARE IN AN UNHAPPY CONDITION
Arendt fears most, is that when the language of BLANK, language of BLANK invade and impoverish the language of BLANK action, that is dangerous for action because it is essentially discussion, it involves reasonable discussion, the possibility of a world of BLANK comes under assault
labor, work, political, action
Arendt believes we should really care about the…
level of discourse that takes place in the political realm
What type of philosopher is Taylor?
A philosopher of multiculturalism
How does Taylor identify the modern condition?
as an unhappy condition with lots of discomfort and anxiety
What is the first source Taylor presents for this state of contemporary, modern unhappiness?
(3pts)
Individualism:
-We are constantly dismayed and discouraged by the selfish individualism, the world seems to promote this idea of selfish individualism, that everyone is out for themselves
-The chain of being has broken down and shattered into atoms, into individuals
-This is a world of consumerism, individual pleasures and consumption, a world of isolation
What is the second source Taylor presents for this state of contemporary, modern unhappiness?
(2pts)
Instrumental reason:
-Can be referred to Arendt second level of work
-It is a world where everything is useful, its either useful or its worthless, everything must be calculated or manipulated for maximum efficiency
What is the third source Taylor presents for this state of contemporary, modern unhappiness?
(3pts)
Soft despotism:
-We simply no longer care about the political world we live in where we kind of throw up our hands and say ‘oh things are looking out for themselves’ ‘the government should just allow me to go on my own and get off my back’ ‘it doesn’t concern me at all, its not my problem’
-The things that are going on in the political world, just don’t concern us at all, we just don’t care about them
-It means that when we disengage from the political, we are allowing ourselves to be manipulated by structures that are greater than we are
Overall what does Taylor suggest about this unhappy condition, what don’t we realize?
-We don’t even notice that the world we are living in is a world that does not reflect our free activity, it a world of ‘well I’m not happy’ and there is no possibility of me getting out of this ‘unhappiness’
What is Taylor’s solution?
His solution involves looking back and reviewing the sources of the first 2 sources of unhappiness (individualism and instrumental reason) figuring out where they came from and how they are the reasons for our unhappiness
