The Theory Of Hannah Arendt’s Public Realm Research

A nation’s classical past means its genuine future. Living in a given historicalcircumstance, Hannah Arendt can do nothing when many of her brethrens are harmed.Thus, she hopes to explore the cause, dynamical drive and consequence of totalitarianismof the time. In the course of her exploration, she proposes the notion of public realm. Byinsisting on the importance of the notion, she hopes to set up a true public realm, inwhich man could become genuine political man. The notion of public realm first appearsin Arendt’s Human Condition, which presents the initial stage of her political thought. Asher thought grows to maturity, Arendt turns to focus on the argumentum of revolutionand the relationship between politics and morality. Arendt starts to investigate mind lifeat her old age, trying to interfuse human practice and psychic activity. This is theevolution of Arendt’s thought, which is deeply involved in human practice and it’s realmmeaning, namely the significance of public realm.There is no thinker who will not be influenced by other thinkers. Arendt is noexception. She has been influenced by many ideas. However, she holds different ideasfrom that of any traditional philosophies and her theories are often misunderstood or evencriticized. Arendt witnesses a special time, which marks a spiritual blankness andtraditional theories, the root of thoughts “disappears” or “made disappear”. With politicsinvaded, or even replaced, by philosophy, Arendt believes that politics is gradually losingits original character and become completely different, and that people, not knowingwhere to go, are getting anxious and lost. As an inaugurator, Arendt symbolizes a newthreshold. With her unique insight, she traces the evolution logic of traditional theoriesand puts forward her own political theory. The characteristics and importance of hertheory lie not only in the fact that she advances a healthy life style and an ultimate moralideal, but also in the fact that she persistently pays attention to public realm and holdsactive attitude toward public affairs. As core of Arendt’s theory, public realm isconsidered to be so divine and sublime that it inspires all good things and illuminateshuman life. Arendt’s political theory both starts from and ends with the idea of publicrealm, which asserts the primacy over anything else. It is universally acknowledged that the contemporary public life is in chaos anddisorder, without any clear aim and rational judgments. So we need much more concernfor the contemporary theoretical issue of public realm. Epistemologically speaking,Arendt’s political theory is worth regarding for her critical and reflective ideas on humancondition. In contemporary context of blankness, her theory is badly needed. Arendt isthe only one, among the contemporary thinkers, to face up with and tackle all crises inpublic life. Whether or not you agree with Arendt’s illustration, at least, she provides anattitude of thinking, giving a self-presentation and a unique interpretation of public realm,which is of extreme importance for both public and private realms of contemporaries.Moreover, a proper elaborating of Arendt’s public realm will help us to bettercomprehend her political theory.As the most influential political philosopher of20thcentury, Arendt is so importantand characteristic that we have to carefully investigate and actively refer to her theory.Arendt has experienced a process that action ripens into thought. Early Arendt is“someone to seek dream”, trying hard to practice what she is thinking of, such as love,freedom, dream, and good political life. She is active, insists on action and affirms itsimportance, for action associates with human liberty. Arendt advocates and yearns for thefreedom of action, which means that one can break away from the fetter of necessity andget involved in what he want to do. Such a freedom is absolute freedom. In a free publicregion, one can absolutely reveal himself, which means a genuine happiness. Thus inArendt’s opinion, nothing is more important than action, especially in public realm, andonly action can attains outcome and experiences the process. No one can get completelyaway from action and this is something out of human nature, or we may say that action isan embodiment of ontological existence of man. However, with an old age and richexperience, Arendt makes some change in her theory. She turns her concern for “action”to that for “thinking”. Later Arendt emphasizes more on the importance of thought,especially judgment, since action without thinking is foolish and blindfold. Only bythinking, can we make judgment on action and make choice between “doing” and “notdoing”. Only by thinking, can we reflect on ourselves’ or others’ doing and judge whetherthe doing is “right” or “wrong”. Judgment makes the opinions from public realmuniquely bear standard meaning. A genuine man must be responsible for his own behavior and his action represents himself. Thinking before acting is equal to an oldsaying in China, namely,“look before you leap”.Last but not least, I hope that my dissertation would be of reference value to thepublic realm construction in China. Although we are not sure whether a public realmexists in traditional Chinese society, what we can confirm is that with the rising of reformand opening-up, and with the invasion of consumerism, public realm in China has notattained its healthy room to develop. The absence of public realm manifests thecontemporary political crisis, while a wholesome public realm will provide a powerfulsupport and help for China’s modernization. How to build up a healthy, orderly andenergetic public realm in fast developing China is what we need to think over. Only inthis way, can we clear up, in reality, the tension between the state and society. Only inthis way, can we agglomerate national ideas and enhance harmonious progress of society.