Totalitarianism and Existence. Contribution to the Understanding of Hannah Arendt’s Concept of Personal Responsibility

Abstract

Ako odgovornost shvaćamo kao zadovoljavajući čovjekov odgovor na situaciju u kojoj se nalazi i takav pojam barem djelomično izuzmemo od paradigmatskog pravno-etičkog obrasca, mogli bismo lako ući u njegovo posve drukčije značenjsko polje koje svoj teorijski diskurs u mnogome zahvaljuje Hanni Arendt. Pojam osobne odgovornosti koji pritom najviše dolazi do izražaja Arendt će u takvom okružju suprotstaviti pojmu političke odgovornosti, napose u njenom rasponu od kolektivne nevinosti do kolektivne krivnje. Osobna odgovornost o kojoj se ovdje radi zapravo počiva na moći prosudbe. Nevolja prosudbe, kako ju naziva Arendt, događa se onda kada ona svoju moć ne nalazi u opće usvojenim pravilima ponašanja. Čovjek kao egzistencija tada neumitno pristupa posebnom ispitu svoje autentičnosti. Koliko osobna odgovornost predstavlja ključ filozofskog razumijevanja egzistencije, pogotovo s obzirom na današnje otežane uvjete u kojima nije jednostavno prepoznati nove znakove uzdizanja totalitarnosti, središnje je pitanje kojega se dohvaća ovo izlaganje.If the responsibility is understood as a satisfying response to man’s situation, and if we at least partially remove such a notion from the paradigmatic legal and ethical pattern, then we could easily enter into its completely different semantic field with a theoretical discourse largely due to Hannah Arendt. The concept of personal responsibility that especially becomes apparent in this process Arendt opposes to the notion of political responsibility, in a range from collective innocence to collective guilt. In fact, the personal responsibility in question is based on the power of judgment. The predicament of judgment, as Arendt calls it, happens when its power is not rooted in generally adopted codes of conduct. Man as existence then inexorably approaches a special test of his authenticity. The central issue discussed in this article is thus the following: how much the personal responsibility represents a key to the philosophical understanding of existence, especially regarding the non-triviality of contemporary difficulties in identifying new signs of raising totalitarianisms