Hannah Arendt: Freedom as Collective Self-Determination

Prof. F. Budi Hardiman raises this question as the entry point to explore Hannah Arendt’s concept of natality in the continuation of the lecture and discussion series commemorating the 50th anniversary of Arendt’s passing, organised by Goethe-Institut Indonesien in collaboration with Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyarkara. Dr. Ruth Indiah Rahayu will serve as moderator for this session.
 
As an intellectual shaped by her firsthand encounter with a democracy destroyed by the totalitarian regime in Germany, Hannah Arendt is widely regarded as a thinker who offers a profound sense of hope for democratic renewal. Through her writings, she examined dimensions of the human condition previously overlooked by many of her contemporaries. With her phenomenological approach, Arendt introduced a new understanding of the human being—as one capable of beginning anew through the capacity she called natality, a concept she closely linked with her reflections on republicanism.
 
Contrasting with the bleak portrait in The Origins of Totalitarianism—where Arendt analyses the collapse of the republic through the destruction of the public sphere—the concept of natality in The Human Condition (Vita Activa) becomes a key element for rethinking political life from a different vantage point. Natality opens the possibility for the recovery and revitalisation of the republic.
 
By tracing the relation between action, freedom, and natality in Hannah Arendt’s republican thought, this lecture and discussion will not only clarify the political meaning of natality in the context of democracy, but also offer concrete assessments and recommendations within the realm of Realpolitik.