Hannah Arendt Center talk by Marcus Llanque

This event occurred on:  Few phrases that Hannah Arendt coined have inspired more political, social and legal thinking than the assertion of “the right to have rights.“ Some critics believe that Arendt is suggesting that without citizenship human rights are practically worthless. Every time a migration crisis looms, interpretations of this kind reoccur. Another reading tends to think that Arendt is criticizing human rights discourse as such: as a paradoxical or even tautological effort that has been confusing political philosophy from the very start. This view finds resonance in hegemonic studies believing that human rights are nothing else but a subtle instrument of power.

My reading aspires to engage with Arendt's original intention, which was not to criticize the idea of human rights as such, but the specific concept of that idea that prevailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which dominates human rights discourse in our times as well. In Arendt’s view, human rights can only guide actions, but they cannot replace them. Historically, human rights were most successful when they were linked to the foundation of a polity guided by the principles that human rights stand for. Her argument reflects a classical republican position by emphasizing that norms are nothing without actors and that it is the purpose of human beings, not just to enjoy as many rights as possible, but to be able to act in the first place.

Marcus Llanque is Professor for Political Theory at University of Augsburg/ Germany. He’s published several books on the theory of democracy, republicanism, and the history of political ideas. He is the editor of Hannah Arendt’s “What is Politics?” within the upcoming critical edition of Arendt’s complete works.

Free and Open to the Public.