Arendt and Promising: Why Make the Leap of Faith?

Arendt’s conceptualization of the public sphere as an arena of freedom is a sadly ironic construction. It remains only as a potentiality for beginnings--something waiting for its own natality. If the rebirth of the public is essential for collective freedom, then Arendt is suggesting that a revolution of sorts is in order. This is why her work has been heralded by the postmodernists (Lyotard 1992). However, this interpretation misses Arendt’s central point: freedom remains contingent as long as beginnings lack remembrance. Rejection of the modern, with all of its antithetical impulses, will lead to a beginning with no reference to the past. Freedom is not the rejection of the past, but the projection of the past into the future..x000d.Arendt’s insight that mere “generation” is doomed to failure is crucial if the project of collective freedom is to be achieved. However, Arendt’s cynicism leaves her own storytelling incomplete. As the historical process unfolds beginnings bring us collectively one step closer to freedom, because history itself is a form of remembrance. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]