Do conceito de amor em Santo Agostinho ao conceito de amor mundi em Hannah Arendt : um estudo comparativo

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate the deep influence of Saint Augustine’s thought on Hannah Arendt’s works, the former probably a philosopher who played a key role in developing the latter’s political and philosophical reflections. The significance of the influence of Saint Augustine’s thought on Arendt can only be compared to the one exerted by the Greco-Roman thought and world. This study suggests that the concept of amor mundi (which includes the notion of world) is the main concept central to comprehension of Arendt’s philosophical and political perspectives which allow reconciling thought with action, philosophy with politics, dominions that have been separated since the trial and death of Socrates at the hands of the Athenian democracy. In addition to the concept of amor mundi, such concepts as will (liberum arbitrium) and political freedom (the faculty of beginning something new), complementary to the notion of love towards the world and fundamental to comprehension of action considered as the most important activity from the standpoint of the human condition. Existentialism practiced by Arendt (which attaches importance to thinking, willing, and judging – spiritual faculties that are also sources of any action) does not set philosophy against politics considering that the philosopher cannot but act and reflect politically claiming the autonomy of the realm of philosophy. Arendt does not only criticize Christian philosophy and theology when they uphold the idea that the soul salvation and man’s eternal life depend on him giving up the world (especially, giving up political action), isolating himself from mundane things, and practicing amor Dei (love towards God), disregarding the need to love the world. Instead, Arendt also appropriates Christian concepts in Christian philosophers (especially, Saint Augustine, but, also, Jesus of Nazareth and Saint Paul) giving them new meanings in order to be the antidote to the loss of the common world and men’s capacity to act. This study also upholds that Arendt is a thinker who includes herself in the philosophical tradition of incompatibilist libertarist thinkers insofar as she understands that Free Will both conceived as liberum arbitrium and freedom to begin something new is not compatible with the causal determinism of the facts. After all, it is claimed that Arendt is a classic and extremely original author inasmuch as her thought offers concepts, ideas, and signs that keep topicality for comprehension of the reality that surrounds us.