Type

Text

Type

Dissertation

Advisor

de Laurentiis, Allegra | Edwards, Jeff | Nuzzo, Angelica | Iwasaki, Minoru

Date

2017-12-01

Keywords

Arendt | Philosophy | Hegel | the French Revolution

Department

Department of Philosophy

Language

en_US

Source

This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/11401/78283

Publisher

The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.

Format

application/pdf

Abstract

Through a close analysis of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and the Philosophy of Right, this dissertation constructs Hegelian answers to Hannah Arendt’s critique of the French Revolution, according to which the modern subject’s claim to actualize universality in politics necessarily undermines the plurality of freedom. Hegel shows that the modern subject withdraws into illusory innocence and undermines the plurality of freedom only when it embodies universality insufficiently. First, the dissertation demonstrates that Hegel’s “universality” can withstand Arendt’s criticism and that it transcends her view of modern society as emerging from a degeneration of ancient Greek and Roman freedom. Second, the dissertation illuminates the divergence between Hegel and Arendt concerning the idea of innocence and the problem of poverty, both of which play a prominent role in their respective analyses of modern society. This includes the epochal event of the French Revolution and the specific topics of the Terror, of private vs. public spheres, of the political and pre-political, and of “hypocrisy.” Hegel’s analysis shows for example that poverty is not a pre-political, perennial feature of human societies in general, but an inevitable consequence of the development of civil society. This dissertation aims at highlighting the cogency of Hegel’s conception of modern revolutionary freedom and universality against the background of Arendt’s critique of the French Revolution. | 225 pages

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