Murphy, Peter (2010) Power and paradox: Hannah Arendt's America. In: Schapp, Andrew, Celemajer, Danielle, and Vrasidas, Karalis, (eds.) Power, Judgement and Political Evil: in conversation with Hannah Arendt. Rethinking political and international theory . Ashgate Publishing Group, Farnham, Surrey, GBR , pp. 146-156.

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Abstract

[Extract] "Wherever men come together, in whatever numbers, public interests come into play . . . and the public realm is formed. In America where there are still spontaneous associations, which then disband again - the kind of associations already described by Tocqueville - you can see this very clearly. Some public interest concerns a specific group of people, those in a neighbourhood or even in just one house or in a city or in some other sort of group. Then these people will convene, and they arc very capable of acting publicly in these matters - for they have an overview of them. (EU, 22)" Everything in America turns into its opposite. That is true, not least of all, when we consider the origin of America's republican form of government. From the ancient Greek philosophers to the eighteenth-century French philosophes, everyone agreed that republics by their nature were small in scale. The French political philosopher, Montesquieu, stood in a long line of thinkers since Aristotle who had said the same. Large territories were governed by kings or emperors. Rousseau agreed. Republics were restricted to city states. When Rome stopped being a city state in anything but name, it became an empire.

Item ID:	22542
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-1-4094-0350-0
Date Deposited:	03 Jan 2013 02:25
FoR Codes:	22 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES > 2203 Philosophy > 220319 Social Philosophy @ 100%
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