Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Gershom Scholen v Hannah Arendt
While I understand Gershom Scholen is suggesting Hannah Arendt embrace her Jewish identity as it specifically relates to her work and what influenced her perceptions, I admire Arendt's stict adherence to her own conceptions about the appropriate place to practice different portions of one's life. In her mind, Arendt would not be capable of living the Vita Activa if she practiced, or apparently even acknowledged, her religion anywhere except the private sphere. For to Arendt, her Jewish identity is not and never should be open for any type of discussion. It should not affect how she is treated, and it should not be perceived as the motivating factor behind any type of "action" taken in the public sphere (lest it be considered a means to achieve an end). Having lived through the historical period that she did, it would be naive to say Hannah Arendt completely transcended her experiences and was in no way shaped by them. However, I suppose it could also be true that Arendt would feel that the cause of societal degradation in the first place was the blurring of the lines between the public and private, and work, labor and action.
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I agree with this post. There is no way that Arendt could maintain her life the way that she wants to live it and also be a voice for the Jewish people. In effect this would be politicizing a constative identity and opening up the floor for debate and discussion about that identity.
ReplyDeleteI think that is the biggest issue here. One person in class made the claim that by ignoring this identity or not defining it leaves room for someone to define that for you. I think this is fundamentally a flawed idea. No one can contest a fact about something that is simply a fact about them. By opening the floor for discussion you are drawing attention to and making public something that doesn't need to be public.
I think that Arendt makes a good point that she should not have to discuss her own ethnicity. It is not normal for people to bring up their ethnicity for everything they do. I don't think that one's ethnicity should have any bearing on how well they can do something. Since it is part of the person's identity it should be a personal decision for each person to divulge. If it is part of Arendt and she does not want to discuss. I agree that she would consider it to be part of the private realm and therefore not open for discussion because it is not put into the public realm.
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