Phillip Hansen – författare

The new study provides a fresh and timely reassessment of the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. While analysing the central themes of Arendt's work, Phillip Hansen also shows that her work makes a significant contribution to contemporary debates. Specifically, Hansen argues that Arendt provides a powerful account of what it means to think and act politically. This account can establish the grounds for a contemporary citizen rationality in the face of threat to a genuine politics. Amoung other issues, Hansen discusses Arendt's conception of history and historical action; her account of politics and of the distinction between public and private; her analysis of totalitarianism as the most ominous form of 'false ' politics; and her treatment of revolution.The book is a balanced and opportune reappraisal of Arendt's contributions to social and political theory. It will be welcomed by students and scholars in politics, sociology and philosophy.

This collection of essays by established scholars explores the juncture of action and appearance in the political thought of Hannah Arendt. "Action and Appearance" is a collection of essays that look into the crucial and complex link between action and appearance in Hannah Arendt's political thought. Contributed by respected scholars, the essays articulate around the following themes: the emergence of political action when questioning the nature of law, subjectivity and individuality; the relationship between ethics and politics; the nexus of (co-)appearance, thinking and truth; and, Arendt's writing as action and appearance. For Arendt, action is a worldly, public phenomenon that requires the presence of others to have any effect. Therefore, to act is more than to decide as it is also to appear. Much has been said about Arendt's theory of action, but little attention has been paid to her approach to appearance as is done in this volume. "Action and Appearance" explores both Arendt's familiar texts and previously unpublished or recently rediscovered texts to challenge the established readings of her work.Adding to established debates, it will be a unique resource to anyone interested in Hannah Arendt, political thought, political theory, and political philosophy.

C.B. Macpherson occupies an ambiguous place in contemporary political thought.  Though his work is well known, it remains on the margins of current democratic theory. That marginalization, Phillip Hansen argues, comes from our failure to appreciate the underlying philosophical dimension of Macpherson’s work.Identifying and exploring Macpherson’s systematic critique of the liberal claim that the individual is the “proprietor of his own person or capacities, owing nothing to society for them,” Reconsidering C.B. Macpherson highlights his affinities to Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, and the Frankfurt School.This stimulating reappraisal illustrates the importance of Macpherson’s classic books, including The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism and Democratic Theory, and demonstrates how much his work has to offer to the future of political and social thought.

With a few exceptions, critical theorists have been late to provide a comprehensive diagnosis of neoliberalism comparable in scope to their extensive analyses of advanced welfare state capitalism. Instead, the main lines of critical theory have focused on questions of international justice which, while no doubt significant, restrict the scope of critical theory by deemphasizing linkages to larger political and economic conditions.Providing a critique of the Frankfurt School, Brian Caterino and Phillip Hansen move beyond its foundations, and call for a rethinking of the bases of critical theory as a practical, freedom-creating project. Outlining a resurgence of neoliberalism, the authors encourage a fresh, nuanced analysis that elucidates its political and economic structures and demonstrates the threats to freedom and democracy that neoliberalism poses. They propose the reformulation of a radical democratic alternative to neoliberalism, one that critically addresses its limitations while promoting an enhancement of communicative and social freedom.

Hannah Arendt försökte fatta det i realiteten ofattbara när hon 1961 följde rättegången i Jerusalem mot den ökände nazisten Adolf Eichmann. Efter det att denne förklarats skyldig till »brott mot mänskligheten» och avrättats väckte Arendt flera kontroversiella frågor. I Den banala ondskan (1964) diskuterar hon om det är lagenligt, eller över huvud taget möjligt, att döma en enskild individ för ett brott som är så ofantligt och så ofattbart. Hon ansåg att Eichmann var varken sinnessjuk, enfaldig eller diabolisk. Han var ond, men hans ondska var banal och bottnade i bristande inlevelseförmåga. Arent hävdar att såväl tänkandet som handlandet ständigt måste omprövas och betraktas med nya ögon, eftersom båda har kommit att inkräkta på varandra. För Arendt har tänkandet inte att göra med begåvning och anlag för teoretisk begreppsbildning, utan med alla människors naturliga förmåga, ett sunt förnuft. Arendt förklarar Eichmanns brist på eller avsaknad av heterocentriskt tänkande, det vill säga förmåga att tänka på andra människor, som orsakad av hans bristande inlevelseförmåga; denna identifieras med hans oförmåga att sätta sig i andras situation. Med Aristoteles hävdar Arendt att det finns såväl autentiska som förvridna former av tanke och handling. De senare kommer till uttryck i det hon kallar »det politiska livets falska substans». Förekomsten av en falsk form av politiskt liv blev i Arendts ögon absolut avgörande för möjligheterna att utveckla medborgarskap ? människors sätt att förhålla sig till makt, lag och regering ? och, därmed, att befästa villkoren för deras samverkan. /Hamdi Hassan, Dagens Nyheter

Countering recent interest in promoting tax cuts in Canada, this study examines how taxation helps define the nature of a political community and the values of a political culture. By comparing two Saskatchewan tax reports from the early 1960s and the late 1990s, this treatise demonstrates how assumptions about taxation policy reflect and shape conceptions of democracy and citizenship and contends that tax cuts promote an individual-centered rather than a society-based policy that affirms community values.