Reason in Politics: Arendt and Gadamer on the Role of the "Eide"

Abstract

Plato's doctrine of the ideas (eide) is often construed as the basis for a foundationalist, two- world epistemology which underwrites an authoritarian, undemocratic politics as well as various forms of domination and bias in public life. This view has been shaped to a considerable extent by Hannah Arendt's description of the tension between philosophy and politics. But Arendt's diagnosis of a transformation in Plato's understanding of philosophical speculation also suggests the possibility of an alternative interpretation of Plato. Indeed, Arendt's unfinished project of developing a theory of political judgment which is neither foundationalist nor authoritarian might be completed with the help of such an alternative interpretation. This possibility is developed more cogently by Hans-Georg Gadamer, who shows that the doctrine of the ideas is inextricably bound up with the very possibility of human reasonableness and moral consciousness. Gadamer's understanding of the eide thus may form the basis of a non...