Hannah Arendt and political economy by Jean-Jaques Rousseau

Abstract

The text is a critical analysis of the objections made by Hannah Arendt against Rousseau. It shows how Rousseau’s concept of political economy fits into Arendt’s understanding of society. From this perspective, Rousseau turns out to be an ideologue of society. It manifests in the belief that it is not people but societies that inhabit the Earth. Arendt did not notice or at least did not consider Rousseau’s shift in perception of politics. Unlike the ancient Greeks, he did not regard man as a political being, but a natural one. Therefore, according to him politics requires external legitimization, that is given to it by morality and elementary biological needs. Nature, in turn, provides morality and politics with standards of law. Here, the general will proves to be a kind of social substitute in the context of natural laws’ absence.