A PERSPECTIVA HISTÓRICA E POLÍTICA DO TOTALITARISMO EM HANNAH ARENDT

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Hannah Arendt's dual methodological approach to totalitarianism. In Origins of Totalitarianism, specifically the third part of the work, Arendt presents two perspectives of totalitarianism, one historical and the other political, this approach is justified by the author, for her, the conception of tradition, of traditional political thought, understood totalitarianism as another form of exaggeratedly authoritarian government. This view, for Arendt, represents a prejudice against politics, this prejudice, begins with the trial and condemnation of Socrates, marking the philosopher's initial stance towards politics, under which he is present in the entire thread of tradition. By analyzing this dual approach, we find Arendt's critique of tradition and her understanding that totalitarianism is an unprecedented form of government and that it promotes the suspension of politics and the annihilation of individuals. Starting from the hermeneutic methodology, this article intends to trace Arendt's understanding of this political phenomenon, highlighting the way in which she orients her thoughts and writings is, in part, influenced by the activity of understanding and other by the hermeneutic tradition. Thus, the work Origins of totalitarianism is the starting point of this article, as well as Lucas Barreto's doctoral thesis: The methods of Hannah Arendt [manuscript]: a framework from phenomenology, philosophy of existence and hermeneutics. To this end, this article intends to sustain the idea that when analyzing the totalitarian regime, Arendt has a phenomenological and hermeneutic conception of methodology.