Call of Papers for the Next Dossier

Call for papers for the Dossier of Pescadora de perlas. Revista de estudios arendtianos

ISSN: 2953-4410

Dossier: What is freedom?

Coordination: Dolores Amat, Camila Cuello and Luciano Nosetto

When asked to reflect on the meaning of politics, Hannah Arendt offers a simple and forceful answer: the meaning of politics is freedom. The simplicity and forcefulness of this answer gives rise, however, to a series of reflections that address the complexity and controversies of the link between politics and freedom.

Arendt immerses herself in the Greco-Roman tradition, to account for freedom as political action committed to the common world, but also in the Stoic-Christian tradition, to account for freedom as free will, at a distance from the world of men. Both traditions were reconfigured in the modern age, making it possible to distinguish those currents that conceive of freedom as the security of the individual, protected by politics; those that conceive of it as the unfolding of the sovereign will without restraint; or those that find it in the constitutio libertatis of the revolutionary course of the republic. In this way, Arendt's reflections allow us to delve deeper into the controversies to which the notion of freedom has been subjected throughout our tradition of political thought, giving an account of the complexity of its most problematic links (with necessity, the world, the social, liberation and violence, among others).

On the basis of these profuse developments it is possible, and even auspicious, to reflect also on Arendt's relationship with liberalism. A reflection that implies both a reconstruction of Arendt's position with respect to this political tradition, and a review of the way in which Arendt's work has been read, criticized and taken up by various proponents of liberalism. In this path of reflections, questions about the individual and his relation to freedom constitute a fruitful topic to address. Not only to investigate the way in which these questions are present in Arendt's thought, but also to analyze the ways in which his work has been questioned, updated and reinterpreted from individualist or critical perspectives of individualism.

In this dossier we invite contributions that reflect on the problem of freedom from Arendt's texts and from the dialogues and works that Arendt's categories generate and promote even today. The intention is twofold: on the one hand, to invite to the always fascinating task of investigating the richness of an already classic work and, on the other hand, to bring Arendt's voice closer to the ever-current debates on the notion of freedom.

Deadline for submissions: November 20, 2024.

We remind you that the reception of free contributions is permanently open, for the sections Estudios y Notas, Reseñas y Perlas. 

Please read the Submissions section carefully.