Detention, thought and solitude In times of pandemic A possible interpretation from the ethical-political thought of Hannah Arendt

Abstract

Although mind activities and worldly activities are different, they are closely related to each other. Reassembling this bond facing the difficulties in the modern world of the 20th century was one of the greatest challenges of the Arendtian corpus. For this reason, to evaluate the balance lost both in the field of thought and in the field of action in the current context of COVID-19, in this paper, I will try to highlight some articulations that can be examined between thought, plurality, action, and judgment, categories that Hannah Arendt has thoroughly worked on her intellectual career. The point of contrast will center on an interpretation of the link between thought and entertainment offered by Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century in fragment 139 of his work Thoughts. To problematize my proposal, I will recover Arendt's considerations from chapter II of The Life of mind. This will allow us to rework the knot between thought and dialogue with oneself, enabled by the experience of interruption or pause. From this point on, I will try to elucidate different activities configured by the experience of thought, solitude, isolation, and loneliness. The Arendtian recovery of the figure of Socrates, in this framework, will be not only central to counterbalance how the link between solitary life and thought represented in the Pascalian figure was historically resolved, but also crucial to reflect upon the exercise of judgment in crises.