Hannah Arendt, a critical reader of Plato

n 8 (january, 2012) • Archai: As Origens do Pensamento Ocidental

Autor: Daiane Eccel

Abstract:

We know that Arendt is a Greek philosophy lover, but what is impressive in her writings is the amount of times she turns to Plato trying to explain aspects of the Western political thought. In this sense, we will consider Plato from Arendt’s point of view, 1. Platão e a gênese da separação entre Filosofia e política Arendt é frequentemente reconhecida entre seus críticos por aquela que retorna ao mundo grego para cotejar tanto as obras dos pré-socráticos, quanto os escritos de Platão e Aristóteles. Que ela seja amante do pensamento grego já se sabe, mas o que impressiona nos seus textos é a quantidade de vezes em que ela se volta para Platão para tentar explicar aspectos do pensamento político ocidental. Platão é, sem dúvida, um dos principais personagens de Arendt no enredo da problemática entre filosofia e política. A reflexão acerca do abismo, da separação entre filosofia e política é uma das chaves de leitura possíveis para a obra de Arendt e Platão aparece nos textos arendtianos tanto quando ela trata de questões específicas da Grécia como quando reflete acerca de temáticas atuais e, como de costume, retorna ao mundo antigo em busca de respostas para a modernidade que viveu nas sombras. O resultado disso é que até em textos que tratam de problemas modernos – como é o caso daqueles presentes na coletânea Entre o passado e o futuro – o nome de Platão é o que, sem dúvida, mais aparece no índice onomástico. A consulta ao índice de nomes é somente a confirmação do que se constata quando se ECCEL, D. (2012). “Hannah ArendtT, uma leitora crítica de Platão”. Archai n. 8, jan-jun 2012, pp. 27-37. 28 since there is no purpose to elaborate a paper about Plato through Plato, or from Plato’s point of view, as such. Plato is the first of this tradition, but he is ironically the first who sees a abyss between philosophy and politics. The fact that Plato is considered the first philosopher of the tradition of Western political thought is related to the fact that, due to the death of his master Socrates, Plato has seen a abyss between philosophy and politics that continued for the rest of the tradition. Because Athenian polis condemned Socrates, although he considered himself as a citizen, he could not prepare his defense and save himself from the condemnation. Plato would have developed a kind of hostility toward politics. Due to this sentiment, Plato would have created a relationship of hierarchy between philosophy and politics, so that the latter has been placed in an inferior level and his existence would only occur to ensure the right of the philosopher to enjoy his bios theoretikos, and causing politics to loose its dignity.

Texto Completo: http://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/archai/article/view/8301/6820

Archai: As Origens do Pensamento Ocidental

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