Arendt and Ricœur on Ideology and Authority.

Authors

  • Carlos Alfonso Garduño Comparán National Council for Science and Techonology of Mexico (CONACyT)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2014.252

Keywords:

Arendt, Ideology, Authority, Power, Social

Abstract

Abstract

Hannah Arendt’s work is an important reference for Paul Ricœur. Her definition of power as the free action in concert of individuals within a community of equals, guaranteed by institutions, allows Ricœur to ground his reflection on the political dimension of recognition and justice. However, as I will show in this paper, such a definition is problematic, particularly because of the relation that Arendt establishes between power and authority, her decision to separate the social and the political, and her understanding of ideology, philosophy, and common sense in politics.

After describing Arendt’s account of the relation between power and authority, I argue that, without rejecting the spirit of her political thought or her basic concepts, Ricœur’s reflections on the functions of ideology in his Lectures on Ideology and Utopia offer a broader but complementary vision that allows us to understand the issues that remain obscure in Arendt’s approach.

Keywords: Arendt, Ideology, Authority, Power, Social.

Résumé

L’œuvre de Hannah Arendt constitue une référence importante pour Paul Ricœur. La définition arendtienne du pouvoir comme agir ensemble des individus au sein d’une communauté d’égaux garantie par des institutions, fournit en effet à Ricœur les bases de sa réflexion sur la dimension politique de la reconnaissance et de la justice. Cependant, cet article s’efforce de montrer qu’une telle définition est problématique, non seulement en raison de la relation qu’Arendt établit entre le pouvoir et l’autorité, mais aussi en ce qui concerne sa distinction du social et du politique, sa compréhension de l’idéologie, ainsi que sa conception de la philosophie et du sens commun dans le domaine politique.

Après une analyse des thèses d’Arendt sur la relation entre le pouvoir et l’autorité, cet article soutient que, sans rejeter l’esprit de la pensée politique arendtienne et ses concepts de base, la conception ricœurienne des fonctions de l’idéologie développée dans L’idéologie et l’utopie offre une vision plus ample et plus complète qui permet d’éclairer les questions qui demeurent obscures dans l’approche de Hannah Arendt.

Mots-clés: Arendt, idéologie, autorité, pouvoir, social.

Author Biography

Carlos Alfonso Garduño Comparán, National Council for Science and Techonology of Mexico (CONACyT)

Carlos A. Garduño Comparán. Bachelor in Philosophy, Iberoamerican University (UIA), 2004. Master in Philosophy, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), 2009. Ph. D. in Philosophy, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), 2011.

He has read Philosophy of Communication, Ethics and Theory of Knowledge at Iberoamerican University (UIA), Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) and Sociopolitical Ideas and Institutions at Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM), in Mexico City.

His doctoral thesis explores the problem of the definition of Contemporary Art and was published in 2012 by Jaume I University with the title Arte, Estética y Psicoanálisis: promesa de reconciliación. La falta de evidencia del arte contemporáneo y su derecho a la existencia (Art, Aesthetics and Psychoanalysis: Promise of Reconciliation. The lack of evidence of Contemporary Art and its right to exist).

He is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT), in the School of Graduate Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) of Paris, where he researches about different concepts of representation in relation to the faculties of the subject, from Hume and Kant, to Benjamin, Ricœur, Arendt, Foucault and Psychoanalysis.

His general interests vary from Ethics, Aesthetics and Epistemology, to Psychoanalysis, Theory of Communication, Political Theory, Theory of History and Art, and Literary Criticism.

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Published

2014-12-23

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2014)

Section

Articles

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