From the world loss to natality as a central category of political thought: Hannah Arendt's trajectory

Abstract

The aim of this article is to interpret the paths of the philosopher Hannah Arendt in the elaboration of the political category of nativity and relating them to her experience of statelessness, imprisonment, escape and exile in the United States between 1930-1940. In Lisbon, after the news of the death of the philosopher Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt wrote the text "We the refugees" (1943) to describe the situation of the "newcomers". Years later, in the book The Human Condition (1958), she substantiates this concept as natality, making it a central category in her political thought. Reading Hannah Arendt nowadays makes it possible to convey the importance of amor mundi and the existential conditions that allow the world to welcome newcomers.