Earth-Sensitive Rootedness: The Crisis Horizon of the Modern World and the Opening up of Public Space Phenomenology to Ecology in Hannah Arendt’s Thought

Abstract

This paper proposes a reinterpretation of Arendt’s political thought from the ecological perspective in the context of the crisis that arose from the emergence of the modern world. Firstly, this crisis is described as stemming from the following reasons: the great transformation of the human condition by technology, the displacement of common sense and sensitive knowledge by science, and the possibility of annihilation of life on Earth. Secondly, the paper points out the way in which Arendt redirects this situation towards a phenomenology of public space. Finally, the work shows how the foundations for looking after the Earth in the public sphere can be found in our sensitive roots to the Earth and in its way of appearing.