THE DIVORCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND THOUGHT

a preliminary approach to Hannah Arendt’s studies

Abstract

Accordingly to the reflections exposed in Hannah Arendt’s work, action, plurality, and freedom constitute political condition. According to Arendt, human beings are essentially plural, different from each other. The plurality is, as said by the author, “the condition” of all political life. In this context, the human is necessarily diverse, plural, but also free. A political structure must be righteous to these qualities, allowing the coexistence without smashing plurality and freedom. Hannah Arendt shows that periods of dark times bring out the darkness in public scope causing individuals to not recur to politics, in exception for the most vital interests or in relation to their personal freedom. In this sense, there is a disregard for the world and for the political scope. The author also holds that the absence of critical thought is reflected in serious risks for the course of the emancipation and human freedom, concentrated in the totalitarian regimes on the twentieth century.