Abstract
[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian] Modern revolution as the beginning of founding a new political order has to confront the vicious circle inhered in all beginnings: in so far as it is the beginning, where does its principle come from? Or, if there is no principle, how could the beginning establish one? Set in the context of modern political experience, the aporia is equal to the problem of how modern politics to be self-grounded or how to reestablish political authority in modernity? By an exploration into the relevant writings of Hannah Arendt, the article tries to investigate the vicious circle of beginning and principle in the political realm, and to point out that Arendt has told a story about the mutual generating of beginning and principle, turning the so-called vicious circle into a hermeneutic circle, in which those implicit principles become explicit through the performance of founding actions.
Highlights
One of the biggest challenges we face in the post-enlightenment age is that those pillars of religion, truth and tradition, which once supported this world, have collapsed one by one
It is necessary for us to find out a new foundation for political life and to lay a secular base for political authority, so to speak, to develop “a politics of foundation” (Honig 1991: 98), if people long to have the experience of being at home in this world, and if political life deserves independence and dignity
Taken as a whole, the aporia of beginning that revolution immediately and inevitably sets before us could be expressed as how secular political power and political authority is to be self-founded under the background of the loss of traditional authority
Summary
One of the biggest challenges we face in the post-enlightenment age is that those pillars of religion, truth and tradition, which once supported this world, have collapsed one by one. Sieyès broke out of the vicious circle by introducing an absolute beginner who is apparently necessitated in all revolutions, so long as revolution means to be totally separated from the past and unfettered by any tradition, so that it could be completely free to initiate a new future, which is exactly what those thinkers who favour the French Revolution, as Sieyès and Schmitt, conceive of the revolution and the activity of constitution They argue that the revolution is a natural state of lawless vacancy, in which the new constitution has not yet entrenched while the preceded laws had been annulled. Is there really such an absolute beginning, that is, a virtual creation coming from nothing?
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
