Ragione, critica, politica: paradigmi del moderno in Hannah Arendt

Reason, Critique, Politique: Paradigms of Modernity in Hannah Arendt. The essay is divided into five reflections: 1. The hour of readability; 2. Modern world and modern age; 3. Archimedes’ point and introspective reason; 4. The critique of political reason; 5. Experiences of politics: the re- volutionary spirit. The first one discusses the more recent critical framework in which Arendt’s reading of modernity, articulated in distinct paradigms, is situated. In the second one, with reference especially to "Human Condition", a distinction is made between ‘modern world’ and ‘modern age’, and it is shown how Arendt’s criticism of modernity unfolds as a historical analysis of the modern age. The third reflection highlights some features of Arendt’s critical attitude towards modernity, particularly the analysis of ‘introspective reason’ and reality reduced to ‘process’. The fourth analyzes, according to Arendt, the existence of another paradigm of modernity linked to Kant and his ‘theory of judgment’. The last reflection concludes with the importance of the ‘experience of politics’ in Arendt’s thought, with references to her reading of modern revolutionary paradigms.