Worauf ist noch Verlass? Die Problematik der Verlässlichkeit und Verlassenheit und ihre Bezüge zu Urteilskraft bei Hannah Arendt

Abstract

What Hannah Arendt postulated in her later texts on common sense and the power of judgement can be better understood if one is familiar with her original questions; these included, amongst other things, the problem of abandonment, which corresponds to the question of the reliability of human relationships. The two terms – abandonment (Verlassenheit) and reliability (Verlässlichkeit) – share the same etymological origin, yet today they have opposite meanings.

The following article attempts to analyse the extent to which, for Arendt, the problem of reliable interpersonal relationships was, on the one hand, linked to the problem of reality (in particular the loss of reality she attributed to the modern world) and, on the other hand, of particular relevance to her political thought. Furthermore, the essay examines the connection, as understood by Arendt, between thinking and judging on the one hand, and the reliability and durability of interpersonal relationships on the other.
Arendt had little interest in a solitary existence; she wanted to know what connects people and what they have in common. Her concern was with a fundamental problem, from the perspective of which the political present should be viewed and political philosophy conceived. The question of reliability, or the topic of abandonment, was, as one might argue, also instrumental in the creation of that specific perspective of understanding from which Arendt sought to comprehend the totalitarian experiences that seemed only to confirm her diagnosis of modern abandonment.