Violência, desobediência civil e felicidade pública: três estudos sobre a dignidade da ação em Hannah Arendt

Abstract

This dissertation adresses the theme of the dignity of action in Hannah Arendt. For this purpose, the investigation it is divided in three complementary studies: The first moment part from the Arendt’s reflexion about the statute of violence in politics, precisely, the question about the possibility of a justification for this phenomenon in the field of human subjects. The second moment discuss civil disobedience in line with the hypothesis that this phenomenon corresponds to a nonviolent alternative of political participation and claim. Lastly, the third moment of this dissertation discusses the revolutionary dilemma and the forgetting the notion of public happiness, in addition to Arendt’s critique of representative system and his praise for the council model. With this path, an itinerary is traced around the theme of the dignity of action in Arendt, highlighting the critical perspective of the author referent to the equation of the politic with domination, of power with violence, and shrinking the spaces for opinion formation and active citizen participation in representative systems. Notwithstanding, it seeks to provide elements for an interpretation of civil disobedience as a phenomenon of updating the human capacity to act together, of the reencounter with the public happiness. Since this phenomenon, in Arendt’s privileged perspective, it is directly related to politics as a plurality of discourses and actions, is distinguished by its capacity to bring something new into the world, that is, promote the building of a common world through concerted in action. Treating of a theoretical study, the methodology used will be an bibliographic approach between the reflections contained in some of the most important works of Hannah Arendt, namely, in the book Crises of the Republic (2004), The Human Condition (2010), On Revolution (1990), the essays in the Action and the pursuit of happiness (2018) and Between Past and Future (2009). It is understood that Arendt’s attention to these themes of contemporary politics to confer relevance for this research, since the Arendt’s reflections retain the ability to illuminate our present from the key categories exam like power, violence, authority, civil disobedience, representative system and public happiness.