More philisophical musings over at Only a Game:
Hannah Arendt (pictured) blamed Plato for setting politics and philosophy in opposition. For although Plato advocated a “Philosopher King”, this meant solely that the person in charge would have sufficient respect for philosophy to ensure that the philosophers could be left undisturbed in their deliberations. Plato did not, Arendt claims, envision philosophy as an active force in the common world of people and it was her belief that this was a deadly “blow dealt by philosophy to politics, the conviction that political activity is a necessary evil…”She was troubled by the “inherent degradation” of the political realm, but even more so by “the radical separation” of the political realm, where people live and act together, from the concerns of people living in “singularity and solitude”. This probably played into her decision to reject the title of philosopher for herself (despite it now being de rigeur to call her a philosopher), on the grounds that philosophy was concerned with “man in the singular”.
Continued after the click.
