Greek politics and the crisis of political action according to Hannah Arendt

Abstract

Hannah Harendt considers that political action is the essential human activity. She claims that roots of the modern political crisis can be found in philosophical thinking, particularly in Plato as an outcome of what Socrates’ execution entailed. Her main argument is that philosophers detached action from contemplation and, as a consequence, political action was separated from rationality. In this regard and more than ever, argues Hannah Arendt, a political philosophy in its true sense is needed.