Hannah Arendt and American Loneliness

Loneliness and appearance: Toward a concept of ontological agency

“…From Dante Alighieri's De Monarchia, quoted in Arendt, 1958, p. 175. 14 Simone Weil also thinks of the power to say "I" this way: "We possess nothing in the world-a mere chance can strip us of everything-except the power to say 'I'." For more on a distinctly American understanding of Arendtian isolation and loneliness, see Richard King (2013). 15 A story from Sebald which suggests that the shell of a lonely self convinced of its own superfluousness can sometimes seem to the world to be whole: "At Regensburg he crossed the Danube on his cloak, and there made a broken glass whole again; and, in the house of a wheel-wright too mean to spare the kindling, lit a fire with icicles.…”

“…See Chapter 5 in The Origins of Totalitarianism: "The Political Emancipation of the Bourgeoisie". For more on a distinctly American understanding of Arendtian isolation and loneliness, see Richard King (2013). 18 Action in concert never determines the permanent content of a collective's political needs but concern, rather, "the practical, ad-hoc organisations of citizens pursuing 'actual' and 'short-term' goals" and "disappear[s] as soon as these goals have been achieved."…”

The Possibility of Politics: Hannah Arendt, The Public, and the Fragility of the Common World

“…95 Ibid,21. 96 HC 137 97 On this, see Lewis Mumford's classic description of the all-pervasive influence of the clock on European society (1963,(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28). The clock is obviously not a ubiquitous feature of human communities, and the degree to which it became embedded in daily life has obscured the constitutive role 'objective time' plays in our worldly experience.…”

“…Peter Baehr) or conflicting accounts of associational culture under the Nazis (e.g. Benhabib), 10 it has begun to receive more serious treatment by scholars, either in relation to language and thoughtlessness, 11 the broader social fabric, 12 or liberal conceptions of citizenship. 13 Shuster is correct in identifying the fact that Arendt understands her phenomenology of loneliness to be ahistorical; 14 as a result, while empirical evidence might be able contest the use of the concept from a causal perspective, it cannot dispute the experience of loneliness itself.…”

“…2009, 107). She does not, however, fully endorse Arendt's conception, finding it to be an "agonism without antagonism" that, like Habermas, aims at consensus, albeit by different means (2013,(12)(13)(14). While there is something to be said for Mouffe's approach, her use of Arendt as a foil and launching pad, rather than a serious conversation partner, leaves her excluded from this thesis.…”