Understanding and Judging History: Hannah Arendt and Philosophical Hermeneutics

Abstract

In this study I primarily deal with the problem of historical understanding in the work of Hannah Arendt. In doing so, I try to show that Arendt’s ideas concerning the problem of understanding history (which mainly involves the task of understanding unique historical events) may be compared to the works of Heidegger and Gadamer and further developed using some hermeneutical insights as found in their works. I also try to address the topic of judgment; I attempt to show that for Arendt, judgment is an integral, indispensable part of the process of understanding.

Authors and Affiliations

Jakub Novak

Keywords

Related Articles

Tactile Reception and Life-Worldly Circumspection. Film and Urban Experience in Benjamin and Heidegger

In his famous essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin compares the daily experience of buildings with the perception of films. His comparison relies on the peculiar concept of “tacti...

“Nothingness or a God”: Nihilism, Enlightenment, and “Natural Reason” in Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi’s Works

Our paper analyzes one of the most important philosophical problems of the philosophies of the Enlightenment: the problem of the emergence and the justification of the autonomy of reason. Our study will reflect on the cr...

The subjective and intersubjective dimensions in the hermeneutical theory of translation

This essay first examines the issue of intersubjectivity in terms of the paradigmatic relationship between I and You. From a grammatical standpoint this relationship seems asymmetrical as well as necessarily performative...

Hermeneutik heißt Übersetzen

Larisa Cercel (Hg.), Übersetzung und Hermeneutik. Traduction et herméneutique, Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2009

Daring to Fear: Optimizing the Encounter of Danger through Education

Through its would-be extrication from education, fear just gets forced into a less detectable and hence more efficacious modus operandi characteristic of anxiety and deep boredom. Since proscribing fear protects students...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP124148
  • DOI -
  • Views 105
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Jakub Novak (2010). Understanding and Judging History: Hannah Arendt and Philosophical Hermeneutics. Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy, 2(2), 481-504. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-124148