PUBLIC SPHERE AS ‘ULTIMUM REFUGIUM’ THE PHILOSOPHICAL, POLITICAL AND ETHICAL THEORY OF HANNAH ARENDT

Abstract

In this article we thoroughly explore and analyze Hannah Arendt’s ontological, political and ethical theory about refugee as a conscious pariah. Hannah Arendt’s philosophical thought on homeless and stateless people is by definition the locus classicus of contemporary ‘Refugee Studies’. Building a typology on conscious pariahs, Hannah Arendt literally formulates a phenomenological and existential political and ethical theory of public sphere in which the figure of modern refugee dominates. Actually, Arendt founds a public sphere as an ultimum refugium for the sake of the world. Arendtian refugee is just the identification and personification of amor mundi. In this vein, Aristotle-like Arendtian republican approach of public space is a political and ethical theory of friendship and humanitas. For Arendt, the only chance we have, as unique human beings, to protect the world from the sandstorms of Totalitarianism is to protect first and foremost the refugees and the homeless people from world alienation. According to Hannah Arendt, stateless people are just the sensitive indicators of our lost thoughtfulness. Loving the refugees is like loving the world itself.