Hannah Arendt Center presents:
Gabriele Parrino on Reconciling Freedom and Authority: Thinking Democracy with Hannah Arendt and the Roman Tradition
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Arendt Center
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
This event occurred on:
The thesis I’m proposing delves into Hannah Arendt’s political ontology by examining the influence of Roman Political Thought on her understanding of authority and freedom. It begins by analyzing the negative portrayals of Romanitas by G.W. Friedrich
Hegel and Martin Heidegger. These two German authors exerted significant influence in negating the originality of Roman legacy. In their philosophy of history, Rome emerges as an overshadowing dominating force that eclipses the original root of philosophy stemming from Greek “pure” philosophy.
Contrary to this hegemonic and paradigmatic position in contemporary philosophy, Arendt’s reinterpretation of concepts such as auctoritas, lex, and libertas serves as a positive rehabilitation of Romanness. Through Arendt's work, not only becomes possible
to recover the political depth of the Roman Tradition, but also to establish the groundwork for an institutional model capable of reconciling freedom and authority within a mixed constitution, without overly emphasizing the novelty of action or the
abstract absoluteness of foundational moments.
The reinterpretation of the constitutive essence of institutions, rooted in the works of Cicero, Virgil, and Livy, finds resonance in the democratic theories advocated by scholars deeply influenced by Hannah Arendt's philosophy, such as Claude Lefort, Jacques Rancière, and Sheldon Wolin. However, these contemporary thinkers, while grappling with the challenge of reconciling the moment of action with its enduring significance, inadvertently leave space for either anarchism or a form of representative democracy that diminishes the vitality of action. This underscores the importance of embracing the Arendtian insights, which, when brought together by the Roman Tradition and her understanding of the council system, represent a way of conceptualizing democracy in a constitutive, contingent, and always productive tension
between form and event.
Hegel and Martin Heidegger. These two German authors exerted significant influence in negating the originality of Roman legacy. In their philosophy of history, Rome emerges as an overshadowing dominating force that eclipses the original root of philosophy stemming from Greek “pure” philosophy.
Contrary to this hegemonic and paradigmatic position in contemporary philosophy, Arendt’s reinterpretation of concepts such as auctoritas, lex, and libertas serves as a positive rehabilitation of Romanness. Through Arendt's work, not only becomes possible
to recover the political depth of the Roman Tradition, but also to establish the groundwork for an institutional model capable of reconciling freedom and authority within a mixed constitution, without overly emphasizing the novelty of action or the
abstract absoluteness of foundational moments.
The reinterpretation of the constitutive essence of institutions, rooted in the works of Cicero, Virgil, and Livy, finds resonance in the democratic theories advocated by scholars deeply influenced by Hannah Arendt's philosophy, such as Claude Lefort, Jacques Rancière, and Sheldon Wolin. However, these contemporary thinkers, while grappling with the challenge of reconciling the moment of action with its enduring significance, inadvertently leave space for either anarchism or a form of representative democracy that diminishes the vitality of action. This underscores the importance of embracing the Arendtian insights, which, when brought together by the Roman Tradition and her understanding of the council system, represent a way of conceptualizing democracy in a constitutive, contingent, and always productive tension
between form and event.