To Begin Something New

A Conceptual Analysis of Hannah Arendt’s Space of Appearance

This essay is about Hannah Arendt’s political philosophy and uses her book, The Human Condition, as its main point of reference. Specifically it’s Arendt’s theory of political action and how it manifests in the world that is going to be explored. The method of the essay is a conceptual analysis and the aim is to answer the following question: “What is ‘the space of appearance?’” The purpose of this essay is twofold. Firstly, to expand on Arendt’s political philosophy. Secondly, it is an attempt to map Arendt's insights into the political turmoil of her time on to ours. To - through Arendt’s writing - find the tools to make clear what often seems cryptic.

One of the core ideas that this essay depends on is a reading of The Human Condition through the lens of Arendt’s doctoral thesis, Love and Saint Augustine. Here she describes the concept of love in the work of the Christian philosopher, Saint Augustine of Hippo, as desire of something good. In this essay I then use this understanding of “love as desire” to describe why humans act politically.

The essay revolves around Arendt’s notion that political action depends on the plurality of man and that a multitude of people acting together within “the space of appearance” creates the processes of unfolding events which constitute human history. The ability to create and reshape history is seen by Arendt as one of the core abilities that make up the human condition. But to create history, a desire for change is needed. By following this argument I come to the conclusion that those with the real potential to use this ability are the ones most oppressed and marginalized by tyrannical regimes or power structures.

At the end of the essay I conclude with presenting two paramount crises that humanity is currently facing: The crisis of climate change and the large scale obsolescence of labor through automation. Instead of making an attempt to propose a solution to these crises, I argue that a lack of ability or willingness to act politically is what blocks potential possibilities for these challenges to be overcome.