Hannan Arendt and John Adams on revolution and the nature of praxis

Abstract

This work exposes the reception of some aspects of the thought of John Adams by Hannah Arendt. We present her debt in the understanding of the concepts of Revolution as an essentially different phenomenon from Restoration, and of Republic as a regime distinct from constitutional government. First, in relation to the revolutionary event, the shift from the initial restorative ambition to the event of the Revolution in Adams, triggers Arendt’s theoretical approach with her category of praxis, which justifies her understanding of the Revolution as “absolute novelty” . Second, we shall address the Arendtian key distinction of auctoritas and potestas, which justifies a lasting foundation in America and the French instability. Finally, we shall argue that in chapters IV and V of On Revolution, Arendt is ambiguous in the way she understands and communicates her concept of Revolution, since at the foundational and constituent moment (in her terms, Revolution), auctoritas and potestas are indiscernible.