A fissura moderna: notas sobre o público, o privado e o social em Hannah Arendt

Abstract

The present proposal engages with the debate whose central focus lies in the analysis of the public and private spheres, elucidating the ascension of the concept of the “social” and its repercussions for politics. Hannah Arendt, in her seminal work The Human Condition (2016), asserts that the dichotomy between the public and private spheres becomes increasingly tenuous. By delineating the distinctions between these domains, she heralds the configuration of a third sphere: the social. The distinct clarity between these two realms, once evident throughout political narrative and established structures, progressively diminishes. The transmutation, or even the superimposition, of the social domain, according to Arendt, introduces complex nuances that challenge, above all, the assimilation of the term in modernity. Thus, with the advent of modern society, the definition of the human being expands to encompass the gregarious and dependent nature, thereby diluting the original concept of political freedom. This transformation results in the politicization of matters once confined to the private domain, such as everyday life and the economy, reflecting a new paradigm of governance that approximates domestic administration. This model of governance transcends the mere management of public space, incorporating aspects of private life and establishing a new configuration wherein the distinctions between the public and private become increasingly indistinct and permeable. Furthermore, Arendt contends that the emergence of the welfare state reconfigures politics as the administration of daily life, with the economy assuming a central role, to the extent that economic science evolves into an instrument of control. This quantitative approach to social phenomena results in the reduction of the complexity of human relations to numerical data. This transition represents a fundamental transformation in the organization and governance of society. Action, characterized by spontaneity and unpredictability, cedes to predictable and controlled behavior.