16032

Kant and Arendt on Sensus Communis (Englisch)

Elena Romano

Kommentar

The core of the seminar is Arendt’s “Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy”, which is a transcription of the series of lectures Arendt gave at the New School for Social Research during the Fall semester of 1970. The lectures convey an original interpretation of Kant’s political philosophy, focused, perhaps surprisingly, on the “Critique of Judgment”. Indeed, the lectures are designed, as the curator of the transcription, Roland Beiner, writes, mainly to show that it is the third Critique and specifically its first part, the “Critique of the Aesthetic Power of Judgment”, that meaningfully contributes to outlining Kant’s political thought.
Within the richness of the lectures, the Kantian notion of sensus communis plays a crucial role in Arendt‘s political reading of Kant. Although Kant does not systematically articulate the notion of sensus communis, Arendt’s account contributes to providing the readers with a comprehensive interpretation that essentially links sensus communis to the power of judgment. In so doing, Arendt develops Kant’s germinal insights spelt out in the third Critique and contributes to the investigation of this faculty of the mind. The seminar aims mainly to disclose the theoretical as well as the political potential of the notion of sensus communis by juxtaposing Kant’s articulation of that notion within the third Critique and Arendt‘s interpretation in the “Lectures”. The seminar will be accordingly divided into two parts. The texts by Kant will be considered through the following principal questions: What is Man in its plurality? What is the importance of sociability for Kant? What does it mean to think for oneself, and how is it possible to think from the place of everyone else? We will see how in the reading put forward by Arendt the notion of sensus communis is crucial for the articulation of such questions.
Further information, complete bibliography and participation requirements will be clarified at the beginning of the seminar.

Approximate bibliography:

Arendt, H., Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy; The University of
Chicago Press, 1992. (Das Urteilen : Texte zu Kants Politischer Philosophie;
dritter Teil zu ”Vom Leben des Geistes” / Hannah Arendt. Aus dem Nachlass
hrsg. und mit einem Essay von Ronald Beiner; Piper, München, 2012)
Kant, I., Critique of the Power of Judgment, trans. by Guyer, P., Matthews,
E., Cambridge University Press, New York, 2002. (Kritik der Urteilskraft,
hrsg. v. Heiner Klemme, Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2009)

Kant, I., Kleingeld, P., (ed.), Toward Perpetual Peace and Other Writings on
Politics, Peace, and History; Yale University Press, New York, 2006.
Beiner, R., Nedelsky, J., Judgment, Imagination and Politics: Themes from
Kant and Arendt; Rowman + Littlefield, 2001.
Payne, C., Thorpe, L. (ed.), Kant and the Concept of Community; University
of Rochester Press, 2011.
Feloj, S., “Think for Oneself and Broad-Minded Thinking. Hannah Arendt on
Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment”; in: Marino, S., Terzi, P. (ed.),
Kant’s “Critique of Aesthetic Judgment” in the 20th Century. A Companion to
Its Main Interpretations; Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2020; pp. 159 - 176.
Schließen

13 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Do, 10:00 - 12:00 13 Termine

Do, 18.04.2024 10:00 - 12:00

Dozenten:
Elena Romano