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A Democratic Consensus?: Isaiah Berlin, Hannah Arendt, and the Anti-totalitarian Family Quarrel

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Kei Hiruta, "A Democratic Consensus?: Isaiah Berlin, Hannah Arendt, and the Anti-totalitarian Family Quarrel", inThink, Vol. 17, n°48, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 25-37

Abstract

Amid the ongoing political turmoil, symbolized by the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, books and articles abound today to encourage us to re-read anti-totalitarian classics ‘for our times’. But what do we find in this body of work originally written in response to Nazism and Stalinism? Do we find a democratic consensus forged by a shared anti-totalitarian commitment? I doubt it. Considering the cases of Isaiah Berlin and Hannah Arendt, this article highlights discord beneath what may today appear like a post-war democratic consensus. I argue that the anti-totalitarian literature of the last century encompassed multiple political philosophies, which sometimes differed irreconcilably from each other.

More information (publisher's website)

Berlin's Bête Noire: Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin on Freedom, Politics and Humanity
01 September 2018 - 30 June 2019
18024
Kei Hiruta
19205
2018
Philosophy
Contemporary period (1789-…)
North America
Kei Hiruta