The Arendt Citizen Thought

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) is a German-American philosopher, political scientist, and social critic. In Arendt's life, she has read widely and written a lot of works. And she has her own unique view on many issues and theories. Arendt's thought of citizens is scattered in some of her views about historical events and real-life politics.Thus, it is necessary to sort out her important ideas. In addition, Arendt's thought also has a major impact and reference on contemporary democracy citizens.On the one hand ,the formation of Arendt's thought of citizens has something to do with her personal experience. On the other hand, she absorbed some ideas from classical republicanism, German classical philosophy and existential philosophy. On this basis, starting from her criticism of totalitarianism, Arendt demonstrated the tripartite model of social theory, and made it the basis of her whole political philosophy. Arendt's civic ideas include six aspects. They are: citizenship, civic virtue, civic culture and education, civil liberties, citizen participation and civic resistance. Arendt's thought is in the traditional classical republican ideology. But she also emphasized human diversity, respected for the individual value. It is a fusion of classical republicanism and modernity. In addition, Arendt criticized historical events and political realities, inherited the historical concept, and made every effort to find out the novelty of events while identifying and thinking about history and politics. At the same time, Arendt's thought of citizens also faces some practical difficulties. Nevertheless, Arendt's thought of citizens is still of great contemporary value. In the reports of the 17th Session of the General Assembly, Hu Jintao emphasized that, in order to improve the Construction of Democratic Politics in China, it is necessary to combine the political restructuring with the expansion of citizen participation. Also, it is necessary to protect the legal rights of citizens and to strengthen civic education. Thus, Arendt's thought has a reference on the contemporary construction of civil society in China .