Introduction

Abstract

Chapter 1 introduces the two primary lines of exploration in the book, following a brief overview of Arendt’s life and works. Firstly, Arendt develops a concept of non-sovereign freedom experienced through political action that interrupts the existing processes and discloses ‘who’ the actor uniquely is, as it discloses the ‘world.’ By focusing on Arendt’s account of action’s disclosure of the ‘who,’ the book sheds light on many resources Arendt’s thought offers for understanding the contemporary political world, as well as several tensions within her work. Secondly, I suggest that Arendt’s engagement with the ‘daimon’ figure illustrates and performs some of the insoluble perplexities facing actors and spectators in the modern, secular public realm, with its complicated relationship to the residual vocabulary of the divine and transcendent.