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After Totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and the Realization and Defeat of the Western Tradition

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After Totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and the Realization and Defeat of the Western Tradition After Totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and the Realization and Defeat of the Western Tradition A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Ilya P. Winham IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Mary Dietz March 2015 © Ilya Winham 2015 Acknowledgements I could not have written this dissertation without the support and guidance of Mary Dietz and James Farr. I learned what political theory is or might be in their classes. I am also grateful for the help of my other committee members, Elizabeth Beaumont and David Haley. I would also like to thank all of the teachers who taught me about politics and various thinkers in the history of political thought: Frank Adler, Robert Albritton, Bruce Baum, George Comninel, Norman Dahl, Lisa Disch, Jean Elshtain, Chuck Green, Duchess Harris, Alison Kadlec, John P. McCormick, Martha Nussbaum and Bill Scheuerman. I would be remiss if I did not thank Kim and Nicolas David for all of their invaluable friendship and support since I arrived in Minnesota. i Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my grandparents, parents, and my wife, Emily Sahakian. ii Abstract This dissertation explores Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and Isaiah Berlin’s (1909-1997) understanding of the Western tradition of political philosophy in the light of totalitarianism in their works of the late 1940s and 1950s. The total collapse of traditional political relations and regimes in the 1930s and 1940s put the entire discipline and tradition of political philosophy in question. As Arendt and Berlin reflected on the Western tradition of political philosophy, both decided that the tradition was not just defeated by Nazi and Communist totalitarianism, it was also in a sense realized in those regimes. In exploring their ambivalent attitude toward the tradition, this dissertation aims to illuminate how Arendt and Berlin contributed to the postwar imperative to think afresh about the Western tradition of political philosophy not only to expose its originating flaws, but also to reconstruct political philosophy on decidedly anti-totalitarian premises. This dissertation engages Arendt and Berlin with respect to the topics of totalitarianism, the tradition of political philosophy, the significance of Machiavelli for post-totalitarian political theory, human plurality as a mode of engaging politics, modern world alienation or agoraphobia and the midcentury zeitgeist of social adjustment. When read together— which political theorists as a rule almost never do—these topics emerge as important to the development of Arendt and Berlin’s respective bodies of anti-totalitarian and “pluralist” political thought. What is ultimately at stake for them in seeking to understand the complicated relationship between totalitarianism and the Western tradition of political philosophy is how to proceed in political theory in a fully post-totalitarian way. In addition to bringing Arendt and Berlin together and investigating some important thematic similarities between them, my dissertation advances our knowledge of both iii thinkers by revealing how deeply the concepts and issues of politics, pluralism, totalitarianism and the Western tradition of political philosophy are intertwined in their writings. Beyond Arendt and Berlin studies, this dissertation contributes to our knowledge of the endeavor to renovate or create political theory after totalitarianism and during the Cold War. iv Table of Contents Abbreviations vi Introduction 1 Chapter 1 36 Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin’s “Monist” Interpretation of the Western Tradition of Political Philosophy Chapter 2 76 In Meinecke’s Shadow: Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin’s Discovery of a “Pagan” Machiavelli in Christian Europe Chapter 3 125 Pluralism Rules the Earth Chapter 4 168 A World Unhinged Conclusion 202 Bibliography 211 v Abbreviations Works by Hannah Arendt listed in chronological order. NF “Nightmare and Flight” [1945], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 133-135. GP “Approaches to the ‘German Problem’” [1945], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 106-120. Existenz “What Is Existenz Philosophy?,” Partisan Review 13 (1946), pp. 34-56. FE “French Existentialism” [1946], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 188-193. DKJ “Dedication to Karl Jaspers” [1947], in Essays in Understanding 1930- 1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 212-216. Burden The Origins of Totalitarianism. First Edition. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1951. Quest “The Spiritual Quest of Modern Man: The Answer of the Existentialists.” Lecture, New School for Social Research, New York, N.Y., 1952. Hannah Arendt Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. MT “Mankind and Terror” [1953], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 297-306. FHM “From Hegel to Marx” [1953], in The Promise of Politics. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2005, pp. 70-80. RP “Religion and Politics” [1953], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 368-390. EC “The Ex-Communists” [1953], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 391-400. UC “Understanding Communism” [1953], in Essays in Understanding 1930- 1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 363-367. Reply “A Reply to Eric Voegelin” [1953], in Essays in Understanding 1930- 1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 401-408. NewSchool “The Great Tradition and the Nature of Totalitarianism” [1953]. Notes for six lectures, New School for Social Research, New York, NY, March 18 to April 22, 1953. Hannah Arendt Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. UP “Understanding and Politics (The Difficulties of Understanding)” [1953], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 307-327. This essay was the first of six lectures Arendt gave at the New School in the Spring of 1953, and then published in Partisan Review 20:4 (July-Aug. 1953), pp. 377-392. NT “On the Nature of Totalitarianism: An Essay in Understanding” [1953], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 328-360. This essay comprises lectures 2-4 of the six lectures Arendt gave at the New School in the Spring of 1953. vi IT “Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government,” The Review of Politics 15:3 (July 1953), pp. 303-327. Preface “Preface” [1953] to the Christian Gauss Seminar in Criticism lectures at Princeton. Second Draft. Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., Oct. 8 to Nov. 12, 1953. Hannah Arendt Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. TMA “Tradition and the Modern Age” [1953], in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Penguin, 1968, pp. 17- 40. Originally the first of six lectures Arendt delivered as the Christian Gauss Seminar lecturer at Princeton in 1953 and then published in Partisan Review 21:1 (Jan.-Feb. 1954), pp. 53-75. TET “The End of Tradition” [1953], in The Promise of Politics. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2005, pp. 81-92. This essay derives from KMPT. TPT “The Tradition of Political Thought” [1953], in The Promise of Politics. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2005, pp. 40-62. GT1 “The Great Tradition: I. Law and Power” [1953], Social Research 74:3 (Fall 2007), pp. 713-726. GT2 “The Great Tradition: II. Ruling and Being Ruled” [1953], Social Research 74:4 (Winter 2007), pp. 941-954. KMPT “Karl Marx and the Tradition of Western Political Thought” [1953], Social Research 69:2 (Summer 2002), pp. 273-319. This material is drawn from lectures 3-5 of Arendt’s six Christian Gauss Seminar lectures at Princeton. CP “Concern with Politics in Recent European Philosophical Thought” [1954], in Essays in Understanding 1930-1954. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1994, pp. 428-447. PP “Philosophy and Politics” [1954], Social Research 57:1 (Spring 1990), pp. 73-103. Socrates “Socrates” [1954], in The Promise of Politics. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2005, pp. 5-39. This is a slightly different version of PP. Machiavelli “History of Political Theory” [1955] course, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Hannah Arendt Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Milan “The Rise and Development of Totalitarianism and Authoritarian Forms of Government in the Twentieth Century” [1955], in The Future of Freedom. The Congress for Cultural Freedom. Bombay, Usha, 1955, pp. 180-206. Broch “Hermann Broch: 1886-1951” [1955], trans. Richard Winston. In Men in Dark Times. New York: Harvest, 1968, pp. 111-151. Epilogue “Epilogue” [1955], in The Promise of Politics. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2005, pp. 201-204. Authority “What Is Authority?” [1957], in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Penguin, 1968, pp. 91-141. vii Jaspers “Karl Jaspers: Citizen of the World?” [1957], trans. Clara and Richard Winston. In Men in Dark Times. New York: Harvest, 1968, pp. 81-94. IIP “Introduction into Politics” [1956-59], in The Promise of Politics. Edited by J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 2005, pp. 93-200. HC The Human Condition [1958]. Second Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. History “The Concept of History: Ancient and Modern” [1958], in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Penguin, 1968, pp. 41-90. Lessing “On Humanity in Dark Times: Thoughts About Lessing” [1959], trans. Clara and Richard Winston. In Men in Dark Times. New York: Harvest, 1968, pp. 3-32. CC “The Crisis in Culture: Its Social and Its Political Significance” [1960], in Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought.
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