On The Concept Of Consensus In Arendt's Political Philosophy

There were two historic background behind Arendt's political philosophy. The one is the totalitarian movement in the 20 th century. And the other one background is related to America. When she arrived in America, Arendt became conscious of the downfall of the republican political system and the republican spirit. Arendt thought about politics though phenomenology. The theme that Arendt thought about was how to prevent political decay, so that to maintain political spirit of republican democracy. And how to protect everyone's rights which make us have dignity and liberty to live. Arendt's idea of political consensus closely related to this.In Arendt's opinion, political consensus don't come from the enlightenment of G od or natural law. Also, it didn't come from nature or one philosophical concept. It came from communication which people held in political field. It didn't mean that eve ryone hold widely same standpoint toward one thing. Whether politics can be helpful in safeguarding everyone's rights are on the basis of political consensus.So, to be precise, political consensus meant civil responsibility and political concern.When showed care and responsibility for politics, we probed into community's fundamental institution through communication.In communication, what most people can agree roughly was political consensus but not personal or metaphysical. Showing political opinions and obtaining political consensus need peaceful political environment and healthy communication.In Arendt's opinion, political consensus was necessary for one community.On the one hand, consensus would be some moral norms. On the other hand, they are the norms that can be formalized. It meant that people comply with norms which I or other most people accepted consciously. One society will lose norms that people can accept when there was without consensus. It will lose moral norms and justice norm of law. Then, community will be difficult to establish and people will be isolate each other because there is not straight-out communication. So,we may be alone. And individual liberty may be lack of safeguard, political order may be difficult to build and politics may be easy to be corrupted.In Arendt's opinion, political consensus is possible. The possibility came from communication between individuals in political field. In Arendt's opinion, different political opinions must be showed. Political consensus is not a natural or absoluteor metaphysical truth. It is a outcome that different people who hold political opinions through debating and compromising. So, political consensus is inter-subjectivity.At the present times, Arendt's concept of political consensus may be utopian or too ideal, but it do not mean that the concept was meaningless. On the contrary, for us,Arendt's concept of political consensus has meaningful enlightenment. Arendt interpret the perspective of republicanism of politics and the other definition of the politics. We may learn from her concept of political consensus how to safeguard rights and everyone's dignity in the world, and how to love this world.