Abstract
Plurality is a key notion in Arendt understanding of politics. Politics as such is based on the fact of human plurality, the fact that there are men, and not a man, and that every individual human being is different. This Arendtian insight has found general acceptance in recent political theory. However, the buzz word in political and moral philosophy over the last decades has not been plurality, but alterity, or otherness. From Levinas to Judith Butler, recognition of the other, responsibility for the other, care for the other have been the normative claims that are supposed to relieve the old metaphysics and to pave the way for a new ontology, a new ethics and a new politics. How does plurality connect to otherness? Philosophers of alterity have stressed the opacity of the other and the limits of our understanding of other persons, and also how our self is constituted through the encounter with the other. In Western societies, the other has increasingly been experienced through cultural and ethnic conflicts, as well as in the difficulties to face gender differences and inequalities. As a result, a few versions of political theories of recognition have been developed, which more often than not refer to collective, cultural or gender identities rather than to individuals. How does this match Arendt’s notion of plurality? Arendt considers the plurality of men qua individuals, not in reference to their cultural belonging or her/his gender identity; she stresses the idea of action, not of passive acceptance of the other, she claims a responsibility for one’s deeds, not for the other. Finally, plurality implies the world in-between and a public space, while otherness emphasizes the opacity of the other and the odds of intimacy. This chapter aims at a conceptual clarification of the notions of plurality and alterity in their moral, ethical and political implications. Alterity reveals itself as a disruption of plurality, since the claims of intimate identities and material life itself threaten the balance between the private and the public and the concerted action through which Arendt attempted to define plurality. The challenge for plurality is how to cope with the legitimate, albeit ambiguous, claim of alterity without destroying itself.
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Notes
- 1.
Like most philosophers before her, Arendt uses the male “man” as the generic for human beings. See also note 28. When quoting her texts, I shall maintain this. Otherwise, I shall be using the female pronouns to generically refer to human beings.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
See also: Honneth 2012.
- 5.
She reflected this broadly in “We Refugees” (WR 264–274).
- 6.
I shall discuss this issue in section 4.
- 7.
It is not clear from the Arendt text whether she would also consider biological diversity as a fact of plurality. A consideration of this point would be of interest for any politics that takes ecological questions into account.
- 8.
- 9.
While shocking for us today, it was obvious for Kant, who wrote “Jedermann” in German and for his English translator read by Arendt, that only male others are to be considered by an enlarged mind.
- 10.
Hence, for instance, Butler’s critique of Arendt: politics is about diminishing the suffering of the Other, about avoiding cruelty, and not about just initiating new courses of action.
- 11.
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Gómez Ramos, A. (2022). Plurality and the Claims of Alterity. In: Robaszkiewicz, M., Matzner, T. (eds) Hannah Arendt: Challenges of Plurality. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81712-1_1
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