The Ingrained Emotional Alienation in Amor Mundi


Ladan Adhami-Dorrani, York University

The brilliant and ever relevant Hannah Arendt, whose intellectual activities made her one of the most outspoken anti-authoritarian and anti-totalitarian figures of the 20th century, in The Human Condition speaks about world alienation. Arendt’s texts shed light onto the covert and overt violence of modernity proliferated by modern nation states that call for political participation in order to create a strong political bulwark against authoritarian and totalitarian ideas, movements and governments. Arendt’s love of the world, or what she calls amor mundi, is derived from her political and ethical conviction that plurality is the law of existence. Although Arendt invites the inhabitants of the world to the love of the world, she considers emotions not only as parts of the heart; but also, believes that, ‘there is no continuity or certainty in man’s ever-changing moods and the radical subjectivism of his emotional life.’ While appreciating Arendt’s significant contribution to the world and well beyond, there is an ingrained emotional alienation in Arendt’s amor mundi. Through a post-modern, interpretive and critical approach, this paper presentation aims to show that Arendt’s disapproval of the entrance of emotions in the public sphere is well-rooted in her phenomenological essentialism which does not include a look at non-Western societies where emotional connectivity sets the tone for everyday interaction among the inhabitants of those localities promoting amor mundi, or the love of the world.

This paper will be presented at the following session: