Tentative lessons of experience: Arendt, essayism, and "the social" reconsidered
Hyvönen, A.-E. (2014). Tentative lessons of experience: Arendt, essayism, and "the social" reconsidered. Political theory, 42(5), 569-589. https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591714538428
Published in
Political theoryAuthors
Date
2014Copyright
© Hyvönen © 2014 by SAGE Publications
The article addresses the role of the essay in Hannah Arendt’s theorizing. By paying attention to Arendt’s style, we are better able to draw the full conclusions from the well-known fact that she was not a system-builder but took her bearings from concrete experiences. First, the concept of experience—too often taken at face value—is explicated. It is argued that Arendt’s understanding of the concept cannot be reduced to her personal experiences, but must be read against the background of the common world. A crucial dimension in the incorporation of experiences into the Arendtian political theory is the essayistic style of her writings. The essay, as an experimental and tentative platform, provides an indispensable angle to Arendt’s work—even though often overshadowed by “classical” or “narrative” readings. This will be demonstrated in relation to the puzzlement surrounding the controversial concept of “the social.”
Publisher
SAGE PublicationsISSN Search the Publication Forum
0090-5917Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/23958699
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
Invisible streams : Process-thinking in Arendt
Hyvönen, Ari-Elmeri (Sage Publications Ltd., 2016)For Hannah Arendt, some of the most distinctive features of the modern age derived from the adoption of a process-imaginary in science, history, and administration. This article examines Arendt’s work, identifying what it ... -
Anticipation as Platform Power : The Temporal Structuring of Digital Everyday Life
Koivunen, Anu; Nikunen, Kaarina; Hokkanen, Julius; Jaaksi, Vilja; Lehtinen, Vilma; Soronen, Anne; Talvitie-Lamberg, Karoliina; Valtonen, Sanna (SAGE Publications, 2023)This article explores anticipation as a temporal structure in digital platforms. It contributes to the growing research of platformisation of everyday life by focusing on temporality as a central dimension of platform ... -
The Janus face of political experience
Hyvönen, Ari-Elmeri (Philosophy Documentation Center, 2018)Arendt’s concept of experience can contribute in important ways to the contemporary debates in political and feminist theory. However, while the notion is ubiquitous in Arendt’s thinking we lack an understanding of experience ... -
Reflecting on educational leadership during COVID-19 : experiences of Finnish higher education leaders and lessons for future crises and emergencies
Perkins, Marc C. (2023)Crisis leadership research as a field has a long history in business, but less so in education, especially higher education. Existing educational crisis leadership research has highlighted the importance of adaptive ... -
Silence and Resistance as Experiences and Presentations of Pupil Agency in Finnish Elementary School English Lessons
Skinnari, Kristiina (Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä, 2014)This paper explores the multitude of ways in which Finnish fifth and sixth grade elementary school pupils experience and present their agency in English lessons, with a special focus on pupils' silence and resistance. Pupil ...