Between totalitarianism and freedom: The relationship between the political and the biopolitical in the thought of Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt's political philosophy has achieved canonical status among democratic political theorists in the half century since its initial and almost immediately controversial appearance. The controversy surrounding Hannah Arendt's political theory continues to grow with the variety of interpretations and re-readings of her works that contemporary democratic political theorists develop. Many of these interpretations not only consciously interpret Arendt against Arendt's announced intent but do so with the purpose of providing for a larger political sphere than Arendt allows.;Several types of democratic theorists advance this enlargement of the political sphere pro or contra Arendt. They focus on Arendt's concept of the encroachment of the social on the political and the private spheres. This "rise of the social" that proves such a problem for Arendt and a wealth of ammunition for Arendt's critics is seen by Giorgio Agamben as an indication of what he calls a "biopolitical" perspective in Arendt's theory.;While it may be hard for Arendt to deny such a perspective in her work; she would insist that such biological processes are not in fact fit for the political sphere. Agamben, like many of Arendt's commentators, goes too far in his reading of Arendt's political theory. He does so by aligning her theory to conform with that of Karl Schmitt, a prominent turn of the twentieth century intellectual who eventually collaborated with the Nazis. While it is true that Arendt's political theory does have a biopolitical perspective---if greater than that allowed by Agamben---and that her texts are subject to feminist and psychological interpretation even against her will. This dissertation investigates the relationships between several interpretations of Hannah Arendt's political theory and their implications for the contemporary discussion of democratic theory.;Giorgio Agamben's linkage of Arendt's concept of the political effects of modernity with those of Foucault to bolster a Schmittian and potentially totalitarian argument that pushes Arendt's theory beyond its limits. Aryeh Botwinick presents an alternative view of the Schmittian outlook but possibly rescues Arendt from the seeds of totalitarianism that lie in all ideologies.