Body and human nature in Hannah Arendt’s work

Abstract

Hannah Arendt is usually associated with topics such as political philosophy, totalitarianism and a critical stance towards the pillars of modernity, inherited by a theoretical link with Jaspers and Heidegger. Despite this traditional reading, the author's work covers various historical and political issues related to the notions of body and nature, among other issues of policy concern. Assuming a historical-hermeneutical position based on a documental review of primary and secondary sources, the objective of this article is to track these concepts through her greatest works. These works include “The Origins of Totalitarianism” and “The human condition”, considered critical writings to interpret the concept of subordinate body to the political sphere. Arendt denies the existence of innate human nature prescribed and unquestionable. From the concentration camps experience, the idea of nature and "natural" origin of peoples was relegated to the interpretation and implementation by the hands of the prevailing political order, therefore totalitarianism was the greatest exponent of this absolute claim of the "natural" concept appropriation.