The Research On Public Sphere Of Hannah Arendt’s Thoughts

Hannah Arendt is a famous German-American social theorist, who has been dedicating herself on the research of philosophy and social subjects. The current academic field about her study achievement mainly focuses on political philosophy, such as totalitarianism, revolution and violence, the relationship between philosophy and politics and so on. However, there are few studies on Arendt’s thoughts of public realm. As a thinker who had first told the differences between the three fields which are public realm, private realm and social realm, Arendt’s thoughts should be placed great importance on, especially under the dramatic underground where some social transmission is taking place. As the application of the theory of public realm is gradually becoming mature, the understanding of the social condition, under which the development and construction of public realm has taken place, as well as the confirmation of the concrete meaning provide a significant theoretical guide for the scientific decision-making and the related policies.In the current thesis, the author analyses systematically the historical background, under which the development of Arendt’s thoughts on public realm, and the political meaning in public realm, the differences and the common characters between public realm and private realm, as well as the process of the up-and-down development of the studies of public realm. Accordingly, this thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter is introduction which mainly explains the background, under which the current research has been conducted, and the significance of the study. Besides, the biology of Hannah Arendt is also introduced. Hannah Arendt was born in Germany and came through many difficult times in her life. At last, she was forced to flee to America and passed away there. And that is why her thought is so piercing and particular. In the end of the chapter, the analysis of Arendt’s theory is presented with the method of literature analysis.The second chapter is about the explanation of the thoughts on public realm, which is also the central part of the whole thesis. Firstly, from the perspective of history, the compartmentalization between public realm and private realm is further introduced, including the vague compartmentalization and the birth of representative public realm. Then the definition of public realm made by Arednt is clarified. And the relationship between public realm and private realm is discussed and then systematically stated.The third chapter mainly presents the rise and fall of the studies in the field of public realm. In this chapter, the author respectively explains and analyses the reasons and the possibilities of reconstruction of the theories.The forth chapter is mainly involved in the analysis of Arendt’s thoughts on public realm. In this chapter, the analysis is conducted from three perspectives, which are historical perspective, theoretical perspective and realistic perspective respectively. Arendt is a great thinker in the20th century and many researchers have been attracted by her peculiar thoughts and personalities. She is usally regarded as a philosopher but has never accepted this title because she thinks that the concern of philosophy is on individuals, while most of her works focus on’the human race who are growing and breeding on the earth’but not’an individual’ Thus she believes that she is supposed to be considered as a social theorist.