Stefanie Borkum | Hannah Arendt | Living Freedom 2024

Lecture by Stefanie Borkum on Hannah Arendt's 'What is Freedom?' recorded at the Living Freedom Summer School 2024 as part of a series on the classics. Writing in 1961, when the principal threat to freedom appeared to be totalitarian impulses released in the interwar era and when traditional sources of authority such as religion could no longer be relied upon, What is Freedom? confronts anew the problem of freedom and how it is that humans can live together. For Arendt, answering the question necessitates distinguishing inwardly and outwardly focused forms of freedom. The former she viewed as pursuit of freedom through the realm of thought and freedom of the will, which she stresses amounts to a conscious retreat from the external world. Inspired by Greek antiquity and belief in human capacity for free action, freedom for Arendt on the other hand is an active freedom realised through a politically constituted public realm that offers a worldly space for freedom to make its appearance, albeit only ever fleetingly. ‘The raison d'être of politics is freedom and its realm of experience is action’, she says, arguing that people interact as ‘equals among equals, commanding and obeying one another only in emergencies' with collective life managed through persuasion and discussion. Today, many appear to have grown weary of our freedom to think, speak and act. Politics is often thought to be determined by forces beyond our individual control, from our genetics and ascribed identity groups to climate emergencies and technocratic governments - all of which seem to have left us with little capacity for influence and less room for personal agency. How can Arendt’s exploration of political action help us think through the problems of freedom and agency today? LECTURER Dr Stefanie Borkum Hannah Arendt Study Group LIVING FREEDOM Living Freedom exists to renew freedom through education and debate, offering young adults the opportunity to explore ideas and debate ideals as they relate to the past, present, and future of freedom. See www.livingfreedom.org.uk and @LivingFreedomUK on social media. IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at [email protected]