Introspection in Hannah Arendt

Rahel Varnhagen, a pariah in search of the world

Abstract

Introspection is subject on the last chapter of The Human Condition (1958). On that chapter, Arendt elaborates on introspection and the loss of common sense. In this context, we understand the loss of common sense as the loss of shared sense or, in other words, as the emptying of the world. When introspection becomes a characteristic of the individual based on this movement of turning to oneself, the whole world is at stake. That is, it implies the loss of what makes us politicians and we also lose plurality. Rahel Varnhagen was, from our point of view, the greatest expression of this introspection brought up by Hannah Arendt. According to Arendt, in Rahel, reality is subsumed in the recesses of the “soul” and, behind closed doors, no longer desires the world. Therefore, the question remains: can public life be constituted as a political life based on introspection? We chose as the literature contribution the works The Human Condition (1958) and Rahel Varnhagen (1957). We chose as methodology the textual exegesis.