The Aesthetic Dimension Of Arendt's Later Political Philosophy

Hannah Arendt is one of the most innoventive and controversal thinkers in 20 th century and her writings have been studied,celebrated and questioned since thire publications.Arendt's political philosophy thinking begins with the study and reflection for Totalitarianism and goes further with two opposite domains: philosophy and politics.The philosophy represents a kind of lonely meditative activity,which rejects actions,keeps far away from communities and stands for spectators.Politics represents a kind of plural and practical activity,which faces political phenomenons directly,takes positive action and stands for actors.Looking at Arendt's lifelong political philosophy thinking,it can be found that Arendt's thinking changed from being deep in philosophical meditation to emphasizing the importance of positive action,and eventually returned to the attention to philosophical meditation.In her later life Arendt went back to the study of philosophical meditation,attempting to solve the contradiction between Philosophy and Politics.And such an attempt embodies in her reinterpretation of Kant's aesthetic judgement during her old age.Through the innoventive interpretation of Kant's aesthetic judgement,Arendt found a way to solve the contradiction between Philosophical meditation and Political action by the aesthetic elements such as taste,imagination,enlarged mentality and sensus communis.In this way,a kind of “positive meditation”,which is not only common,exchangeable,shareable but is also coordinated with political actions,is made possible.Although Arendt's attempt to solve the deep contradiction between philosophy and politics became unfinished because of her sudden death,through her fruitful political philosophical thought,an aesthetic,sensory,subsistent and practical dimension has been revealed.This aesthetic dimension points to the political philosophy which deconstructs traditional metaphysical political philosophy and overcomes its problems,giving a valuable and meaningful political picture in the course of modernity.